One of the hardest working bands in the country, Children Collide are back with a brand new single.
Sword To A Gunfight is the three-piece’s newest anthem and is all over the radio and internet right now!
Frontman Johnny Mackay describes the track as a combination of Primal Scream and Boney M, and
it’s the first taste of their forthcoming third album Monument. See them at Capitol on Friday, March 30;
Players Bar on Saturday, March 31; and Mojos on Sunday, April 1. Tickets from Oztix.

Still fresh from bringing his band Sebadoh to
Australia in September, Lou Barlow has declared
a return jaunt to Australia in solo mode come this
April. In addition to his work in Dinosaur Jr., The
Folk Implosion and the aforementioned Sebadoh,
Barlow is also a prolific solo artist with two indie
folk albums in Emoh and Goodnight Unknown,
as well as swag of Sentridoh releases. He does
the Rosemount Hotel on Sunday, April 22. Grab
your tickets from hadsometours.com, Heatseeker,
Moshtix and the usual outlets.

MAKING THE WORLD
DANCE

As if Britpop starlet Jessie J’s bombastic
live show wasn’t awesome enough, UK
underground hip hop phenomenon
Professor Green has accepted the mic as
support for Jessie J’s first ever Australian
headline tour, which includes a WA show
at Challenge Stadium on Monday, March
5. Joining Jessie J and Professor Green
will be sassy lady Ruby Rose who will
warm up the crowds and get the party
started with a pumped-up DJ set. Tickets
are on sale now and selling fast, so grab
yours today from Ticketmaster.

Stonefield

GIRLS GONE WILD

Rural Victorian wunderkinds and psychedelic
valkyries, Stonefield are set to bring their heavy
rock to the hungry ears of the Perth fans next
month. Showcasing tunes from their upcoming
mini album, Bad Reality, the Findlay sisters will
bring their kaleidoscopic rock‘n’roll hurricane
to the Rosemount Hotel on Thursday, February
23; and the Prince Of Wales on Friday, February
24. Tickets are on sale through Moshtix and
Heatseeker and will likely sell faster than a
gazelle trying to outrun a lion, so get in quick
to ensure you don’t miss out.

Fresh from reuniting for a series of shows across
their native Canada last year, Jeff Martin has told
X-Press that The Tea Party are almost ready to
announce an Australian tour. For more clues you
could always head along to Martin’s show this
Saturday, January 21, at The Fly Trap inside the Fly
By Night. Malcolm Clark will join Martin on drums
and percussion. Doors open at 8pm, grab tickets
from flybynight.org.

BEN’S YOUR COUSIN
Another year, another Ben Cousins
scandal. And once again the man has an
overwhelming amount of public support.
He is still held as a hero in many circles
for his once great ability to get paid to
play with balls.
There was once a time
when Benny Cuz made the covers
of newspapers in WA everyday - and
sometimes they’d even put him on the
back for his sporting achievements too.
Around this time it wasn’t uncommon to
encounter the man himself while out on
the town, and from all accounts, he was
highly approachable and would share his
late night blueberry muffins with adoring
fans no questions asked.
Then things got bad for a bit.
When he looked to be on the mend,
he moved to Melbourne like so many
Perthites before him. After a few years,
he realised Perth is where the heart is,
and returned with a published novel and
documentary to his name.
Now he’s in real bad shape
and he’s back to getting the amount
of media attention usually reserved for
a diplomat, and the general public are
still ‘rooting’ for him. But why? I think it’s
because, despite his fame and talent at
sports, he is an everyman. Sure, he has a
penchant for hard drugs, but according
to recent news-making research dug out
of medical journal The Lancet, Australian
drug use rates are among the highest in
the developed world, so Ben is just like
the rest of us!
While this is not the ideal way
for a father to be spending the first few
months of his child’s life, at least he’s not
out being violent or a menace to society.
In this regard, maybe we should look up
to him.
Get well soon, Benny, you’re
welcome to tell your story to X-Press any
time!
_MATTHEW HOGAN
7

with Melissa Erpen... Send your name, address and daytime phone number to win@xpressmag.com.au with the name of the competition in the
subject line or enter online at www.xpressmag.com.au. Snail mail entries can be sent to Locked Bag 31, West Perth 6872. Entries close 4pm Monday.
By entering you agree to X-Press Magazine’s Terms & Conditions which can be found online. All competition entries will automatically enable you to
become an X-Press subscriber! No details will be given to a third party.

Young Adult reunites Jason Reitman, Academy
Award nominated director of Juno, and Academy
Award winning screenwriter, Diablo Cody.
Academy Award winner Charlize Theron plays
Mavis Gary, a writer of teen literature who returns
to her small hometown to relive her glory days
and attempt to reclaim her happily married
high school sweetheart (Patrick Wilson). When
returning home proves more difficult than she
thought, Mavis forms an unusual bond with a
former classmate (Patton Oswald) who hasn’t quite
gotten over high school, either. Get in now for
your chance to win one of five double passes we
have up for grabs to see wonderful film. Be sure
to get in quick to avoid disappointment.

MINISTRY OF SOUND
CLUBBERS GUIDE 2012

The ancient Mayans foretold the world’s end in
2012, so Ministry Of Sound have sought saviour
from impending annihilation, with an offering
of their biggest compilation to date, Clubbers
Guide To 2012. Setting the sounds for what could
possibly be the last year of our existence; the
double CD loads up 46 of the biggest and best
club remixes mixed into two discs of electronic
madness, to guide your journey through the
dancefloors and potential cataclysmic annihilation
in 2012. Featuring Avicii, Benny Benassi, Afrojack,
Duck Sauce, Example and many more, Clubbers
Guide To 2012 is a must have for the party season.
Get in now for your chance to win one of five
copies we have up for grabs.

9213 2888

Sales and Marketing Manager
Paul Morgan

advertising@xpressmag.com.au

Perth Heat

PERTH HEAT

The Perth Heat have secured top spot for the
season, however with one series left this year
against the Sydney Blue Sox you have the chance
to score a sweet Perth Heat hat and a double pass
to Sunday’s game. Go out and support the Heat
in their final hit out before the playoffs and a shot
at back to back championships. To win this sweet
prize email win@xpressmag.com.au with “Take me
out to the Ball Game” in the subject line. For more
information about the Finals series and to book
tickets visit perthheat.com.au. GO HEAT!

Summer is in full swing in the Swan Valley and
that means the Twilight Concert Series is returning
to Upper Reach, with three very special, very
intimate concert performances. To a backdrop of
Upper Reach’s lush vines, the three concerts will
feature incredible music and the most amazing
atmosphere. The Afro-Latin Funkalleros will open
the season in style on Saturday, January 28, The Oz
Big Band will blend Swing and Jazz on Saturday,
February 11, and the final concert will see blues
and roots act Annabelle Harvey and Aarons
Crusade serenade the crowd on Friday, March 9.
We are giving our lovely readers the chance to
win a night to remember with a double pass to
see any concert during the Twilight season. Enter
now for your chance to win this beautiful prize.

V Energy Green Room

V ENERGY @ BIG DAY OUT

V Energy Drink is thrilled to announce the return
of the V Energy Green Room to the 2012 festival
circuit. Back by punter demand, the stage is an
established festival favourite with the promise of
cracking new DJ line-ups and a unique, interactive
photo wall. The brand new V Energy Club in a Can
experience also joins the scene, hitting Australian
festivals for the first time, in January. The highly
anticipated V Energy Green Room is set to draw big
crowds and will make an appearance at Perth’s Big
Day Out on Sunday, February 5, choreographed to
the beat of Australia’s best DJ talent. Thanks to our
lovely friends and V Energy Drink we are giving
you the chance to win a double pass to the Big
Day Out. Enter now for your chance to snag tickets
to one of the biggest music festivals of the year!

Thrilling sci-fi drama series Survivors is set in an
all too real, post-apocalyptic Britain. Survivors
is Adrian Hodge’s exciting re-imagining of the
classic 70’s BBC drama series, based on the novel
by Terry Nation. When a global virus wipes out
most of the population, those who survive are left
to fend for themselves in a rapidly disintegrating
and increasingly violent world. Get in now for your
chance to be in the running to win one of three
DVDs we have up for grabs. This brand new series
is sure to have you on the edge of your seat so
you don’t want to miss out.

CHECK OUT WWW.XPRESSMAG.COM.AU AND
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER ONLINE FOR
LOADS MORE EXCLUSIVE COMPS!

WARRANTY AND INDEMNITY
Advertisers and/or their agents by lodging an advertisment shall indemnify the
publisher, and its agents, against all liability claims or proceedings whatsoever
arising from the publication. Advertisers and/or their representatives indemnify
the publisher in relation to defamation, slander, breach of copyright, infringement
of trademarks of name of publication titles, unfair competition or trade practices,
royalties or violation of rights or privacy and warrant that the material complies
with revelant laws and regulations and that its publication will not give rise to
any rights against or liabilities in the publisher, its servants or agents. Any material
supplied to X-Press is at the contributor’s risk.

8

Jay-Z and Beyonce’s daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, has become the youngest
person to hit a Billboard chart... We asked our Facebook friends what they
thought about Glory…
Joel
It’s kind of a joke.
Moona
It’s like a Kardashian wedding, isn’t it?
Pam
Willow is going to be so pissed!
Saygan
Also what about those kids Jay Z had before Beyonce? Why don’t they get a song?
Haha.
Grant
Blue Ivy should sue her parents then arrange a restraining order!

UNLIKE
Dear X-Press,
I’m writing to complain about a video I saw on Facebook this
afternoon on the wall of one of your competitors. This magazine
posted a clip they likened to their Christmas break and I was in need
of some distraction so I clicked watch. This clip from Vice Magazine’s
website was disgusting. Showing ravers partying in the Ukraine,
there was a particular moment when they showed a six-year-old boy
licking a grown woman’s chest and then another woman making
out with a dog. I was disgusted. We have a word for that type of
video here in Australia, ILLEGAL. I have a six-year old boy myself, so
needless so say I was outraged. I immediately reported the video to
the powers that be and hope that X-Press doesn’t go down the same
path of peddling smut.
Concerned Parent
Via Email

X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

www.xpressmag.com.au

9

10

X-Press â&#x20AC;&#x201C; First on the street, Wednesdays

SLEEPYHEADS

The Panda Band
The Beards

BEARDOS

A French Butler Called Smith

SO FRENCHY SO CHIC

Funky five-piece A French Butler Called Smith
earned their reputation as a festival favourite in
2011 and are set to charm audiences across the
nation once more during their impending tour.
Guaranteed to give you an intimate relationship
with the dancefloor and slap an unexpected
smile on your face, the lads are back with a shiny
new brass section, a fresh sound and an exciting
live performance to promote the release of
their brand new EP Eating Crow, so don’t miss
the chance to get on down to check out the
intriguing sounds of these five gentlemen. French
Butler play the Prince Of Wales on Thursday,
January 19; Mojo’s Bar on Friday, January 20; the
Settlers Tavern in Margaret River on Saturday,
January 21; and the Indi Bar on Sunday, January
22.

Who would have ever guessed that The Beards
would ever still be around to release album #3?
Not the Adelaide four-piece for one. Those facial
hair-obsessed rockers have readied their new
album Having A Beard Is The New Not Having A
Beard and they’re celebrating this by heading
out on their biggest tour to date. See them at
Settlers Tavern on Friday, March 9; Fly By Night on
Saturday, March 10; and the Indi Bar on Sunday,
March 11.

THE FESTIVAL WITHOUT
THE DRAGON BAND

Due to their inability to complete their album in
time, metal titans DragonForce have reluctantly
had top pull out of the upcoming Soundwave
Festival. But fear not revellers, as two bands have
been enlisted to take their place in the wildly
successful travelling festival. Grammy winner
Switchfoot have made the cut, as have goth
metal pioneers Paradise Lost. They join System
Of A Down, Slipknot and about 90 other bands
at Claremont Showgrounds on Monday, March
5. Head to soundwavefestival.com, Oztix and
Ticketek to grab your ticket. DragonForce have
assured their Aussie fans that they will make it
to the country before the year is out.

END OF AN ERA

After nine years with the band, Jes Fitzgerald
(bass) and Jozef Grech (guitar) have announced
their intention to move on from legendary local
punk rockers Project Mayhem. Don’t miss your
last opportunities to catch the band as they are
now tonight, Wednesday, January 18, at the Prince
Of Wales in Bunbury; Friday, January 27, at Rocket
Room; and on Saturday, February 4, at Ya Ya’s. We
suggest you rock up fucked to these shows.

Mama Kin

MAMA MIA

Mama Kin is a force to be reckoned with and
2012 promises to be as rollicking as ever. But
before she disappears into the studio to record
the follow-up to her critically acclaimed debut,
Beat And Holler, Mama Kin is set to present a
special homecoming show at the Fly By Night
on Saturday, February 11. Joined by The Big
Old Bears, who combine traditional folk with a
contemporary feel, be sure to catch the Mama
for a foot-stomping night. Tickets are available
from flybynight.org.

MUSICA DE CHILE

Chilean folk guitarist Nano Stern has been
announced as the support act for South African
music legend Johnny Clegg. The globe-trotting
musicians will hit the Burswood Theatre on
Tuesday, March 13. Tickets are on sale now
though Ticketek.

CLASS ACT

22-year-old singer-songwriter Oliver Tank is
set to bring his sweet folk sounds to Fat Shan
Records on Friday, January 26. Showcasing tunes
from his new EP Dreams, the talented troubadour
will be joined by much-loved locals Anton Franc,
Ylem and Sam Perry. Get your tickets from
fatshanrecords.com.
www.xpressmag.com.au

It’s been a long time coming but Jason Lytle is finally
coming back to Australia.The man known for his work
up front of indie pop superstars Grandaddy is packing
his bags for his solo tour. Grandaddy have recently
reissued their classic album The Sophftware Slump,
so you can be confident that you’ll hear a track off
of that when he takes to Ya Ya’s on Tuesday, February
14. Support comes from Adam K & PJ (Turnstyle),
The Gizzards, Chimp and DJ Thomo. Limited presale
tickets are available from 78 Records.

COERCIVE POWER

2011 was a big year for Melbourne/Adelaide
prog-core group Coerce and it doesn’t look like
things will settle down in 2012, with the band
recently announcing plans to tour the nation
once more. Showcasing tunes from their ARIA
nominated sophomore release Ethereal Surrogate
Savior, the quixotic quartet will being their
unique eardrum-bursting sound to the Prince
Of Wales in Bunbury on Thursday, February 23;
and the Rosemount Hotel on Friday, February 24.

UPTOWN GIRL

Legendary film and theatre music star and twotime Grammy Award winner Petula Clark returns
for an Australian tour this autumn, including two
intimate WA shows. Relive all your favourites –
Downtown, This Is My Song, A Sign Of The Times,
I Couldn’t Live Without Your Love and Don’t
Sleep In The Subway – in what promises to be a
delightful evening with one of the leading ladies
in showbiz. See her on Saturday, March 31, at the
Mundaring Weir Hotel Amphitheatre; and Sunday,
April 1, at the Albany Entertainment Centre.

MADELEINE, NO

Originally scheduled to be playing Perth’s
marvelous Riverside Theatre on Friday, March 16,
songstress Madeleine Peyroux has cancelled her
entire Australian tour. It’s not because of ‘logistical
problems’ or ‘recording commitments’ either, the
tour has been cancelled due to ‘poor ticket sales’.
If you did buy a ticket, head to the Ticketek box
office at the Regal Theatre or Burswood for a
refund.

Damon Smith & The Quality Lightweights
have been sharing stories with audiences across
Melbourne for the last three years, clocking
up over 120 shows and supporting the likes
of Jeff Martin, Angie Hart, Dan Mangan and
Mark Seymour. Now, local audiences can
catch their intimate live show on Friday,
March 2, at the Railway Hotel. Click on over to
qualitylightweights.com for more information.

Having recently won the Triple J Unearthed Comp
for a spot to play on Southbound, local indierockers Arts Martial are already looking to make
2012 a very big year with a brand new single,
Running, and an upcoming show at Bar 120 on
Friday, February 3. Tickets will be $10 on the door.

DREAMWEAVER

It wasn’t that long ago when The Panda Band were
one of the hottest bands in Perth. Their Massive
single Sleepy Little Death Toll Town saw them rank
in the Triple J Hottest 100 and top the Rolling
Stone Australia bands to watch list. The band took
their live show around the country on numerous
occasions, supporting the likes of The Sleepy
Jackson, Gomez, Little Birdy and The Grates, as well
as embark on several their own headlining tours.
Add a series of trips to the US, and two critically
acclaimed albums and the band were staples of
the Aussie indie rock scene. This is why it came as a
surprise when they called it quits last week, without
any farewell shows. Damian Crosbie and Rufus
Namour have sworn to continue making music
together, while Chris Callan and Scott Howard will
continue in The Witches.

LIGHT FANTASTIC

ART OF FIGHTING

Australian concertgoers will experience one of
the most powerful and sumptuous operatic
voices of the past 50 years when legendary
American soprano Jessye Norman embarks
on a national tour later this year, her first visit
to Australia in over 20 years. The beguiling
songstress will bring her unique repertoire of
jazz and Broadway classics to the Perth Concert
Hall on Monday, April 23. Tickets are available
through BOCS.

OFF THE
ENDANGERED LIST

LYTLE JOY

Switchfoot

Sydney
based
instrumental
rockers
sleepmakeswaves have announced an extensive
Australian tour, celebrating the recent success of
their debut ...And So We Destroyed Everything. The
band’s (Hello) Australia tour will see the eclectic
experimenters touch down in WA for a show
at The Bakery on Friday, February 24, before
heading overseas to showcase at SXSW in Austin,
Texas. Support will come from much-loved locals
Usurper Of Modern Medicine, Apricot Rail and
Ron Pollard Quintet. sleepmakeswaves also play
the Prince Of Wales on Saturday, February 25,
with Ron Pollard Quintet.

Sleepmakeswaves

NAIDOC OF THE BAY

This Australia Day, the Survival Concert at the
Supreme Court Gardens is set to acknowledge
the resilience and survival of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander peoples since the arrival
of the First Fleet. Managed by NAIDOC Perth,
this alcohol and drug free event will have free
admission and will showcase Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander music and dance, along
with free kid’s activities (including a water slide),
an elder’s tent, a large array of community stalls
and a special history tent about the theme. The
crowd will be kept entertained all afternoon by a
talented line-up of Western Australian Aboriginal
artists including Kwarbah Djookian, James
Scott, Ulla Shay, Bryte, Old Flames, The Bad
Influence, Walkabout Boys, Bartlett Brothers
and The Yabu Band.

DIVALICIOUS

Featuring four of the finest females voices in local
funk and soul, RTRfm’s Saturday Night Divas
hits up the Grey Door upstairs at the Claremont
Hotel on Saturday, February 18, from 7pm til
late. On the bill catch Odette Mercy & Her Soul
Atomics, Grace Barbe & Afro Kreol, Boom! Bap!
Pow! and Randa Khamis doing a special solo
set. Plus, on the wheels of steel are The Foxman,
Super J, General Justice, Microgroove, Mama
Cass, Claude Mono and Spud Murphy. Presales
are only $10 for RTRfm subscribers and $15
for the general public – grab yours now from
rtrfm.com.au.

THE KING LIVES

Elvis impersonator Max Pellicano is set to
celebrate the 35th Anniversary of the death of
“The King” in Follow That Dream - The Gospel
According To Elvis; a rocking, musical theatre
production that had critics and fans alike dancing
in the aisles during its first US run. Pellicano plays
Elvis post-partum, reflecting on an extraordinary
life – from his humble beginnings in Tupelo,
Mississippi, to his excessive Las Vegas years. Jam
packed with the music we all know and love, this
musical extravaganza pays the ultimate homage
to one of rock‘n’roll’s biggest icons. Catch Follow
That Dream at the Mandurah Performing Arts
Centre on Wednesday, March 28; and the Astor
Theatre, on Friday, March 30 and Saturday, March
31.

OUT OF AFRICA

Not to be confused with the Fremantle icon of
the same name, South African guitarist/singer
Jonathan Butler is set to delight local fans of
feel-good soul and R&B with a touch of jazz at
a special one-off show at the Riverside Theatre
on Saturday, February 25. The shows will feature
Butler in a unique setting providing intimate
‘behind the music’ stories about his hit songs,
writing experiences and memories growing up
in South Africa and eventually settling in Los
Angeles. Tickets are available now from Ticketek.

TEEN DREAM

Having been recently thrust into
the spotlight following their success
as winners of last year’s Triple J
Unearthed High competition,
Melbourne’s latest teen-pop
sensations Snakadaktal were quick
to capitalise on their new-found
“fame” by releasing their self-titled
debut six-track EP. Now, in 2012,
Snakadaktal will be taking to the
road for their first ever national tour,
which includes a pit stop in Perth
on Friday, March 30, at Villa’s Speak
Easy night. Tickets are available from
Moshtix.

Blanche DuBois

DESIRE TO INSPIRE

This Saturday, January 21, sees awesome local
twosome Blanche DuBois strut their stuff to
celebrate the release of their third studio album
Young Heart. The lovely ladies will perform songs
new and old with the backing of a full band at
what promises to be a very special evening under
the stars in the beautiful Bamboo amphitheatre
(behind Luxe Bar, on Beaufort Street in Highgate).
Doors open at 7pm. Tickets are $20 and available
from luxebar.com/bamboo/tickets.

Snakadaktal
11

Despite the fact they’ve only been
making music together for two years, both
members have previous experience of the music
industry: they met when Oblivion was tourmanaging Follin’s brother’s group, the Willowz,
while Follin herself, via her art dealer mother,
once cut a record with Dee Dee Ramone, and, via
her stepdad’s band Youth Gone Mad, performed
a cover of Amoeba by US hardcore punks the
Adolescents at age seven.
“It’s hilarious,” she says of the cover. “I’m
not like a little angelic choirgirl at all, and I’m just
squeaky and high-pitched, like a chipmunk.”
Fast forward to 2012 and the
introductory phase of Cults’ life span is to some
extent already over, having peaked in May 2011
with the release of their debut self-titled LP which
debuted to rapturous critical acclaim and inspired
enough tweets to jump-start a career.
However, like every hungry act at
Laneway, Cults know they must seize every flicker
of buzz in the air. As Follin attests, the challenge
is to maintain the momentum they have already
established, and, as a somewhat known quantity,
to “throw their weight around a bit”.
“It’s a lot more work than people think,”
she says. “A lot of people talk about being a ‘buzz
band’ like it’s a really negative thing, and people get
pissed off and say we’ve gotten ‘too famous too fast’
but what a lot of people don’t realise is that even
when we had signed a record deal people weren’t

Cults

CULTS

‘buzz band’ is that people

May The Buzz Be With You
New York buzz band Cults have rocketed to prominence through online
buzz and a taste for the timeliness of a well-crafted pop song. JENNIFER
PETERSON-WARD sat down with Madeline Follin ahead of their performance
at the St Jerome’s Laneway Festival on Saturday, February 11.
In the blog-accelerated music world we currently
inhabit, the cycle of buzz turns so fast that
bands caught up in it can find themselves in
the paradoxical state of being brand new and
old hat at the same time.
Case in point: Cults, a two-piece from
Brooklyn who are set to play their first set of
Australian shows as part of the Laneway Festival.
Formed not quite two years ago, the twosome
created an online buzz in 2010 simply by having

12

“The problem with being a

no information available. There was no MySpace,
no official website – just a Bandcamp page and
an amazing song (the spooky ‘60s doo-wop of
Go Outside, released on vinyl only). Googling
them wasn’t an option either, with all kinds of
slightly sinister results leading users further
away from the sunshine melodies created by
Brian Oblivion (who takes his alias from the
movie Videodrome) and his girlfriend Madeline
Follin.

think you’re bigger than you
really are because you’ve
got all this publicity and
everyone’s talking about
you, but in the end it’s really
this only small section of
people on the internet who
actually know who you are.”

coming to our shows.
“The problem with being a ‘buzz band’ is
that people think you’re bigger than you really are
because you’ve got all this publicity and everyone’s
talking about you, but in the end it’s really this
only small section of people on the internet who
actually know who you are and that doesn’t really
equate to a lot of people turning up to see you
live.”
Follin claims there is also an increased
pressure placed upon the shoulders of those
bands deemed to be “buzzworthy”.
“When the first blogs started writing
about us we would get these emails from writers
asking if we could send them more songs to
review and we really started to panic,” Follin says.
“Because the band had blown up really quickly,
we were really worried that if we didn’t produce
more music straight away people would forget
about us just as quickly so we tried to pull some
songs together just so we would have something
to share with people, but the songs were terrible.
In a similar way, we had all these people ringing us
and offering us shows, and we didn’t want to turn
anything down but we weren’t ready for it so the
first few shows were just embarrassing.”
Despite their shaky beginnings, it was
only a matter of time before Cults jumped far
beyond their anonymous Bandcamp beginnings
and into the arms of Columbia Records, one of the
world’s biggest record labels.
“It gave us the security to take a step
back and stop focusing on reviews and blogs,”
Follin says. “Suddenly we felt a lot better about
what we were doing.”
The New Yorkers have also garnered
praise for their live show. Backed by drums, bass
and a busy sideman who goes from guitar to
keyboard to glockenspiel, the New Yorkers create
joyous confections with Follin’s pining voice as the
centrepiece.
“Our live show is definitely more
danceable than the record, but I wouldn’t
necessarily say it’s a high-energy show,” Follin says.
“I mean, were not going to make like Odd Future
and take epic stage jumps off the speakers into the
crowd.”
After playing “the same songs every
night for two long years,” Follin says the duo is well
and truly ready to get back into the studio when
they finish up touring duties down under, despite
the inherent pressure of recreate the success of
their first release.
“I definitely feel more nervous,” she
concludes. “Before we released the first record we
didn’t really have much to go off. Nobody really
knew what direction we were going to go in so we
felt pretty free artistically. But now we have to sit in
the box we’ve made for ourselves.”

X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

www.xpressmag.com.au

13

BETH ORTON

Mother Of The World

Beth Orton
The charming Beth Orton was the darling of the
press and was making albums that were getting
better and better with each outing, befriending
the likes of The Chemical Brothers and M. Ward
along the way. And then five and a half years ago
Orton disappeared and barely a peep has been
heard from her since. That is all about to change
with the shows in Australia signalling a return to
the spotlight for the lithe Brit.
“I have been writing, making things up
and playing guitar,” offers Orton of what she has been
doing in her absence.“I did some stuff with Bert Jansch
and I’ve had a couple of babies.”
With her daughter being five years of age
and the most recent edition to the family – her son –
being closer to six months, it would be fair to suggest
that Orton had other priorities that took her away from
music. While Orton will agree to some extent, she says
that her return to the stage and a new album are not
solely dictated to by the age of her children, and it

Beth Orton returns from a five and a half year hibernation to release an imminent
new album. CHRIS HAVERCROFT spoke to Orton, the folktronica luminary, who
aims to make albums that are as carbon neutral as possible, about juggling young
children with a music career. Orton plays three shows at Quarry Amphitheatre
on Tuesday, January 24, through ‘til Thursday, January 26.
more a result of her finally having the songs that she
is happy with at this point in time.
“I was about to go and record when I
found out I was pregnant,” she says. “I tried but it was
impossible to sing with morning sickness. So, I have
actually come out of the studio today after two weeks
of recording and it has gone really well. But over
these years, every time that I have had to wait to do
something it has always benefitted the music. I have
been thinking about recording but then I will write
another song, or I will get another idea, so it has just
drifted like that.
“Now I feel so ready to make a record and it
is now the best time to do it,” she continues.“Although
I am tired, it is easier just to do it than to wait and it has
been a really good idea. My son has been with me in
the studio and it’s worked out really well. We got so
much done in the first two weeks that we only need to
do another week recording to finish it. I am trying really
hard not to talk about it though because I don’t want

to jinx it. I don’t want to say it is this that and the other
until it is done as I don’t want to count my chickens. I’m
pretty excited though.”
Orton doesn’t see the past half a decade as
a time when she stepped off the treadmill, but more
a time where she was able to consolidate doing the
things that she loves. She is thankful for the time that
she was able to spend with Jansch to write, record and
receive guitar lessons. It was these sessions that would
often lead to Orton returning home to nut out ideas
well into the early hours of the morning.
“It was a really magical time. When the kids
are that small and there is silence in the house it is a
really tender place to be, and I suppose for me a real
wealth of creativity came from that. In the studio now
has been an extension in that feeling. The recording this
time has created a really tender space. It just reminds
me of why I do what I do and why I love what I do. The
benefit of taking time out and making music around
another life has been really inspiring for me.”

The Stepkids

THE
STEPKIDS

Throwback To The
Future
Of all the soul artists breaking through
in recent times, Connecticut trio
The Stepkids may well be the most
imperfect, but that’s exactly the way
the trio like it. JENNIFER PETERSONWARD sat down with drummer Tim
Walsh ahead of their performance at
The Bakery on Wednesday, January 25.
As The Stepkids’ drummer Tim Walsh attests, the
problem with the soul revival of the last few years
has been precision.“The bass now has to sound like
the bass then, except somehow more so,” he says.
“Same for the drums, the guitar, the keys, the vocals.
It’s an idealised take on the past.”
But the past was all kinds of imperfect, which
is why The Stepkids’ self-titled debut is an apt tribute. It
has flaws. It’s pockmarked and scratched up. Of all the
recent throwback soul records, it’s the album most likely
to confuse a listener who knew how it once was, not
how it was imagined to be.
“I hate the whole notion of ‘throwback
bands’,” Walsh says.“There’s a difference between being
inspired by the past and just copying what someone
else has done before.”
Owing a debt to pop culture artifices of
decades past, The Stepkids’ unique groove comes from
a fusion of ‘60s funk, jazz, and classic 20th century soul,
taking the live excitements of the Stax Soul Revue,
spliced with James Brown’s rhythm-as-a-pure-state funk
and mixing in the heightened heirs of psychedelia.
It is hardly surprising to learn that the music
created by The Stepkids comes from more than a
decade of musical experimentation and experience.
Raised on the east coast jazz and R&B circuit, all three
band members have carved out impressive individual
careers which have included scoring movie soundtracks
and commercials, producing solo albums and sharing
stages with Alicia Keys, Lauryn Hill, 50 Cent and
Pharoahe Monch.
“It was a very natural thing,”Walsh says of the
band's origins. “[Bassist] Dan [Edinberg] and [vocalist/
guitarist] Jeff [Gitelman] have been friends for about
13 years and they played jazz together when they
were kids. Dan and I had met years later and we’d been
jamming for a while and had some studio time up our
sleeve. Dan introduced me to Jeff literally right before
we went into the studio for the first session.
Although they’ve only been playing together for
little over a year, the trio have had a storm of hype
unwittingly built up around them. Lauded by critics,
their debut album and first single Shadows On Behalf
garnered synonymously rave reviews from the likes of
Pitchfork and Mojo.
“All three of us had always loved cohesive
albums – those albums that worked best when listened
to from the opening track to the closing track in one
sitting – and we really wanted to create something
similar,” Walsh says. “But at the same time we were
conscious of making something that listeners wouldn’t
get bored with. I’m proud of the fact that our album
works both ways – you can listen to the singles and
enjoy them on their own, or you can sit down and take
in the whole thing and enjoy the overall statement.”

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15

Thee Oh Sees

THEE OH SEES Dawson’s Creed
A major part of the exciting San Francisco garage rock scene, Thee Oh Sees
return to our parts for a show at The Bakery on Friday, January 20. Brigid
Dawson tells MATTHEW HOGAN how she came to join John Dwyer’s hard
working band.

“No shit man, I just kind of fell into it. I wasn’t a
hustler by any means.”
And so begins Thee Oh Sees vocalist/
keyboardist Brigid Dawson on how she started
playing in bands. “The first band I was in was with
a guy I had known since I was 14,” she says. “He was
starting a northern soul band and he knew that I
loved singing and he asked me to be in the band.
I was maybe 19. I was pretty shy, but the chance
to sing was so tempting, and I did it anyway. That’s
basically where I learnt how to sing in front of people
with a microphone and all that stuff.”
The UK native then spent a decade living
all over the place before she met Thee Oh Sees main
man John Dwyer. “I moved back to America and I
met John at a coffee shop that I was working at,”
she says. “He lived around the corner and I was in
another band and we used to talk when he would
come in. I remember him as always being the funny
guy. He would always be handing me flyers to come
see his band. Finally I went to go see him and he was
like ‘you’ve got to tell me when you’re playing’. So I finally
told him when I was playing in my band and he came
to see it and that’s when he asked me to play in OCS,
which is what Thee Oh Sees were called then.”
That was in 2005, when they had more
of a psychedelic folk sound. While the sound has
changed, their tendency to work fast hasn’t. Last year
they released not one, but three records.“We have one
that just came out, and then we released two earlier
this year,” she says. “One was a singles collection, and
then there was one at the start of the year. Most of it
was John, he’d recorded one on a TASCAM Recorder at
home. It’s called Castlemania and it’s really layered and

beautiful. I sing on it, but most of the band doesn’t play
on it.”
More recently the full band effort Carrion
Crawler/The Dream saw the light of day.“We recorded it,
I think, in February and it’s got our new drummer,” says
Dawson.“I like it a lot, I hope other people will like it. It’s
pretty loud, but it still has a lot of melody on it. It’s got
a lot of the songs that we play live on it.”
If they recorded it almost a year ago then
surely they’ve got three more albums up their collective
sleeve, right? “No,” Dawson laughs.“Actually we haven’t;
we’ve been slowing down because we’ve been touring
a bit. We actually had the summer off, and we rewrote
a bunch of songs, but we haven’t recorded them yet.
Maybe next year we’ll be recording them.”

MILES KANE
Smooth Operator

Miles Kane

Following his stellar performances at
Southbound and the Arctic Monkeys
sideshow, British rocker Miles Kane
talks candidly about fame, failure and
friendship with JENNIFER PETERSONWARD.
Having already tasted success with moderatelyknown Britpop outfit The Rascals, it was his turn
as the co-frontman of The Last Shadow Puppets
— his ‘60s-infused side project with Arctic
Monkeys frontman Alex Turner — which officially
introduced model-dating, hard-drinking 25-yearold Miles Kane to the world. However, as the
charming crooner attests, he is hoping recently
released solo album Colour Of The Trap will take
him to “the top of the pops”.
“It’s been like a rollercoaster. There’s been
ups there’s been downs but it’s fucking made me
who I am and I wouldn’t knock any of it,” Kane says
of his career.“I had some great times with The Rascals
and we had a couple of great songs in our catalogue,
but it didn’t really work out and I was gutted that it
just didn’t take off because I really thought we were
going to be massive, being honest about it.
“Then the Shadow Puppets with Al was
an amazing experience. It was the beauty of working
with your best mate and having this connection. We
met when we were 18 and it’s just grown and grown.
We’re both 25 now and we have a beautiful personal
relationship and a beautiful working relationship. I
love writing songs with him and I love being on stage
with him – it just feels so easy.
“Unfortunately, there was a point where
that all ended – Al was going back to the Monkeys
and it was like ‘what am I going to do?’…I couldn’t join
the Monkeys because I’m too obsessed with being
a frontman. I need to be front and centre, I couldn’t
handle being in the background…At that time, I had
a come down period, going from having this famous
thing to having nothing and it was quite hard to get
confident again and motivate myself.”
Kane says that John Lennon was the
album’s main inspiration, but its creation gave him
the chance to work with a more accessible musical
hero: Gruff Rhys from Super Furry Animals.
“I did my first week of recording with Gruff
and it was my first week of being alone and it was
just the best week, it was this new experience, it just
felt so free and it was easy as well. Gruff has a really
calming way about him and so working with him was
the perfect way to start this record.
“This record has been the best thing I
have ever done in my life – not just musically, but
personally. It’s made me who I am. I’ve found myself,
I’ve found the music, I’ve found a path and it’s a
beautiful thing.”
Despite his satisfaction performing under
his solo guise, Kane admits he is wary that his new
work will be compared to The Last Shadow Puppets.
“It’s a hard act to follow, but I’ve made the best
record I can and I hope I can have some hits and go
platinum on my own.” He also says, other projects
aside, that he and Turner will record together again
when time allows. “It’s still a huge passion for both of
us, but we’ve had to put it on the backburner while
we chase other dreams. I’d expect it to be probably
in a year or so from now.”
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X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

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17

Fast forward a few years and Cruz now
divides his time between Sydney, New York and Miami,
working with the likes of urban royalty Jay Sean, Drake,
Lil Wayne and Pitbull. “Last year was mainly Miami so I
spend a lot of time over there producing and writing for
other artists as well as developing my stuff over there
and this year, we’re going to be releasing in the States
“Lead Them” are the words tattooed as well so fingers crossed,” he says.
Cruz landed a deal with Jay Sean’s label
on the knuckles of R&B star Israel Cash Money
after he worked on Sean’s US #1 smash
Cruz. It’s a motto the Asian-Australian hit Down back in 2009 and has since gone on work
Wynter Gordon, Jordin Sparks, Jessica Mauboy and
is living by – having recently started with
Jay Sean just to name a few. Before the Cash Money
Australia’s first urban label Nufirm. deal came along, Cruz released his second record The
independently – a difficult process compared
Although he’s worked with the likes Legacy
to releasing his debut record Chapter 1 when signed
of Drake, Lil Wayne and Jay Sean – to Sony.“It [The Legacy] took me a while to actually do
going from having support to having none is
he hasn’t been offered a fragrance because
like a big stab and there’s a lot of fears you’ve got to
deal yet but there are other exciting overcome like ‘I need some money – how do I put this
out?’,” he says. “There are creative ways to put it out if
projects in the works as ANNABEL you want to. I guess at the end of the day, it all comes
MACLEAN discovers ahead of his down to how the music is and if people like it.”
Given that Australia has a large R&B fanbase;
show at Metro City this Friday, Cruz saw a gap in the market which needed filling – an
outlet for all upcoming urban musicians to showcase
January 20.
their talent, and so 2010 saw the birth of Australian
Having moved to Melbourne when he was three label Nufirm Music. “Nufirm is basically dedicated to
years old from what he describes as “the ghetto signing and developing new artists within the whole
– every house is built with cardboard” in Quezon R&B, hip hop slash dance pop genre which this country
City, the Philippines, Israel Cruz grew up in Werribee hasn’t really got a dedicated label for so I decided to
start one,” he says. “Last year we did a joint venture
– south west Melbourne.

ISRAEL CRUZ
Party Up

with Ministry Of Sound but I’ve been working on it for
a long time… it’s really exciting and I can’t wait to show
everyone the talent that’s coming out of this country.
My main thing is to show people that they don’t have
to go anywhere else to get good music in this country;
it’s all about making it here.”
Aside from working on the label, “finishing
something with Pitbull” and working with Jay Sean,
Cruz is dipping into the fashion industry. “We’re [Cruz,
Jay Sean and more] starting a t-shirt brand that goes
with the culture,” he says of their soon to be released
label Firm Wear.“It all works together. Right now it’s just
t-shirts and we’re going to start on some jackets and
stuff but mainly it’s about the t-shirts and if it blows up
then we’ll keep developing it.”
And as for his slicked up hair style, well that’s
staying too. “My brother comes in every week to my
house and he does designs on my hair. It’s really, really
cool so I just pretty much put the wax in and [I’m] just
ready to rock you know.” And then you re-do it when
you wake up in the morning? “Oh nah, it stays this way,”
he confirms.

The Red Paintings

THE RED
PAINTINGS
Paint It Red

Australian art-rockers The Red Paintings
bring their colourful and commanding
live show to The Bakery on Thursday,
January 19. Creative engine Trash
McSweeney talks to TRAVIS JOHNSON
about art, control, and animals.
Fans will be glad to hear that, following a half
dozen well-received EPs, The Revolution Is Never
Coming, the first full-length studio album by The
Red Paintings is just about good to go.
“I’ve actually finished it,” frontman Trash
McSweeney reveals.“I finished it in the U.S. about two
months ago. It took me five years to make it - it’s just
a really epic album. I ended up using a philharmonic
orchestra and choirs. We were basically conducting it
ourselves, and it was an epic experience of awesome
green things, meaning we got stoned a lot while
making it.”
That would explain the ex tended
production schedule, at least, but it turns out that
the delays were due to a variety of reasons, none of
them herbal.
“ N o, we d i d n’t re a l l y g e t s to n e d,
“McSweeney admits. “I’m just being silly. I think some
people are gonna believe that, though, because it
shouldn’t take five years to make a record. The reason
that it did was that I’d never done a record before.
We’d done a few EPs, but we’d never really brought
out the true vision of what I’ve had. It was a trial and
error in that we brought on a more independent
producer/engineer, and he did a really bad job of
tracking the record, which put us in a bad place
because we thought we were going to release it at
a time when we couldn’t, and I was really unhappy
with the sound of it, so we wound up remixing it and
retracking it in Canada, then back to Australia, then
finally back to America, when we finally got it right.”
McSweeney is also candid about the fact
that his own need for control didn’t exactly speed up
the process, either. Although he employs a number
of collaborators, it’s always been clear that The Red
Paintings is his baby, and he likes to keep a firm
hand on the reins. “We had a label help in a sense in
Canada,” he says. “I had a label sort out a three year
visa so I could keep on writing, but I made it clear
that I wanted no one to have any control over the
record. No one putting money in could tell me and
dictate to me what my next moves were or how it
was going to go, and so it was done 100 per cent
under my control.”
But while the band’s audience are eager to
finally hear McSweeney’s opus, they’re also keen to
get a look at its live delivery, seeing as how elaborate
stage shows have always been an integral part of the
band’s appeal.
“Well, it’s a concept record, 13 songs, and
I’ve built a stage show on paper that reflects all the
messages of the record and becomes an education
experience/world tour. I can’t really go into detail
about what it’s about, because usually it’s about
people coming and being surprised. But there is
a performance element that reflects the record,
absolutely - we’ve just got to wait for it to happen.
Every time I do a stage show, it changes.”
18

X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

Seether

SEETHER
Hold It Now

Alternative rockers Seether have
been kicking around rock arenas
for a little over a decade now, and
are heading to our shores to tour
their new and lengthily titled album
Holding Onto Strings Better Left To
Fray. Frontman Shaun Morgan chats
to CHLOE PAPAS ahead of their
show at the Rosemount Hotel on
Wednesday, February 1.
Holding Onto Strings Better Left To Fray is South
African band Seether’s fifth full-length, and listening
to it evokes only a hint of band of old. Shaun Morgan
discusses the album at length, and illustrates the
importance of a producer that meshes well with the
band, whos, in this case, was famed grunge producer
Brendan O’Brien (Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots).
“We didn’t restrict ourselves at all and we had
a producer working with us that was really involved in
us making the songs as good as we possibly could,”
Morgan begins. “So instead of changing the songs to
suit his style, he would tell us to rewrite stuff that might
suit the song and getting us to do it ourselves. A lot of
producers tend to get involved more than they should
be – I guess they’re failed musicians, so they try to
impart their wisdom onto other bands because they
weren’t so successful. But Brendan didn’t step in, in that
sense, he just helped us spark creativity and make things
better.”

www.xpressmag.com.au

Seether are known for their consistency in
churning out regular bi-yearly albums, but this album
broke the trend, with a four year wait after 2007’s
Finding Beauty In Negative Spaces. Morgan says that the
start of the writing process was a struggle for the band.
“We took a long time with this one,
ultimately it ended up taking us about a year and a half
from the start of the writing process to the end of the
recording, and that’s a long time,” he says.“It’s frustrating
and it’s nerve-wracking and it’s soul-destroying – you
know,‘why is everything taking so long, why can’t we write
songs anymore?’. And we had people telling us ‘well why
don’t you hire people to write songs for you’ and then we
told them to go screw themselves because we know
what we’re doing. And Brendan really believed in us
and he had our back. So we spent a lot of time on our
songs and we really took our time crafting them. And
I think the frustration, the sadness, the anger and all
these negative emotions were balled up and put into
music to make this album more impactful.”
Earlier this year, Seether made a guest
appearance on the Conan O’Brien Show, and acted out
a skit in which the band were utterly dedicated to pop
prince Justin Bieber. So how does Morgan really feel
about the Biebs?
“I think he’s a ponce,” he states.“And he’s now
rapping as well! I mean the kid is no great superstar,
he has some talent and he’s got some very powerful
people behind him. He’s just another part of the
machine. The fact that I even know who he is pisses
me off. And the thing is, now the little guy is running
around speaking like he’s black, and like he’s from the
ghetto. And he’s not, he’s from the Canadian suburbs.
So you know, just be who you are. I mean, we’re just
real – what you see is what you get. We don’t walk off
stage and suddenly become timid little chess players.
Or you know, we don’t go wash off our makeup and
take down our super spiky hair and take off our super
tight jeans and watch Oprah. We get off stage and we
keep drinking beers and we go to bed and go to the
next town and play.

Conditions

CONDITIONS Youth Brigade
2011 was a huge year for Virginian punk rock outfit Conditions. With the release
of their debut full length, Fluorescent Youth, and relentless touring across the
US and Europe behind them – the five-piece earned a notoriety that did not
go unnoticed by fans and critics alike. Guitarist Alex Howard talks to JESSICA
WILLOUGHBY ahead of their set at Soundwave on Monday, March 5.
Being noted as one of the top 100 bands you need
to know by Alternative Press is not an accolade
afforded to many.
Though Richmond-bred rockers
Conditions have taken this ranking in stride with
the aim of proving why they are certainly a band to
watch out for. Using the push to flaunt their debut
effort, Fluorescent Youth, to its hilt on the road – the
notches on their touring schedule followed in quick
succession with much of last year spent away from
home on foreign shores. A routine that the band were
prepared for, according to guitarist and vocalist Alex
Howard.“I think with our debut, we certainly got what
we wanted out of it,” he explains to X-Press.
“We’d been a band for a few years, so it was
a hurdle for us to finally get our debut out on a label.
Especially because we’d already done two EPs on our
own. Just doing that, and having the full experience
of being in a studio for that long – writing that many
songs at once – was a challenge. But it was a really
good one and I felt like we were really prepared for
it and what came to follow. This album was a good
moment in time captured.”

Produced, once again, by band mainstay
Paul Levitz in Baltimore, the quintet set about doing
what they do best at their own pace. Except when a
curveball thrown by Mother Nature forced them to
knuckle down in the studio.
“We actually got trapped in the studio
at one stage because there was a blizzard,” Howard
remembers. “We ended up writing a joke song to
bide our time called Rollin’. It was a first-hand account
of a biker, in metal form. It was real good (laughs).
We were stuck for two days and at one point it was
even declared illegal to drive in the city of Baltimore.
There was something like seven-inches of snow. Paul
couldn’t make it from his house to the studio. But we
definitely had heaps of food, even enough to share
with the mice we lived with. It was interesting.”
With Corey Thomas joining on bass in
January last year, Howard also points to his addition
as a breath of fresh air for the band. “I’m going to
totally embarrass him and say he was a big fan of
ours before he joined. So he came in and he was
really excited; it brought this new charisma. It rubs
off, you know?

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X-Press â&#x20AC;&#x201C; First on the street, Wednesdays

SAN CISCO
Awkward

THE BIG PINK
Future This

Island City Records/MGM

4AD/Remote Control

Call-and-response
vocals,
ecstatic, shiny dance-floor
sensibilities and enough
hooks to reel in an entire sea
of hipster teenagers buoy the
sophomore release from local indie pop four-piece San
Cisco.
San Cisco offer their most immediate bid for
pop dominance with the triple j endorsed single and
title track from the EP, Awkward. Here, Josh Biondillo’s
reverb-doused guitar and bright keyboards spar with
Nick Gardner’s declarative bass, while lead vocalist
Jordi Davieson’s sweet vocals bounce off drummer
Scarlett Stevens’ deadpan delivery to great success.
There are moments when Davieson’s vocals
become too affected for their own good, but his ear for
a tight, catchy pop song and ascending chorus hardly
ever lets him down.
From the pounding tribal rhythms of Rocket
Ship of to the crazily catchy doo-doo-wah-doo vocals
of Lover, all five tracks sound like hits waiting to happen,
and more than prove that the talented local outfit have
strong enough songwriting skills to be heard above
the hype.
Bound to be one of 2012’s most popular
local releases, the tunes on Awkward are memorable
enough to make the idea that San Cisco will be
forgotten by next summer seem a highly unlikely
suggestion. San Cisco will have you humming their
tunes under your breath. That is, if you’re not wailing
them in your car, volume cranked, inhibition long gone.

Looking for that perfect
album to blast down the
beach roads this summer? The
Big Pink have you covered.
Featuring powerfully neon-lit summer
anthems that revel in surging synths and hooks that
sink deep, Future This is reminiscent of the fun slices
of electro-pop that have propelled MGMT, Passion Pit
and Foster The People to headlining festival slots.
The crazily catchy Stay Gold, in particular,
is the kind of well produced jam that stands up to
the best of their influences, a fist pumping bass line
anchoring frontman Robbie Furze’s waifish falsetto
awash in day-glo electronics. It’s the kind of forwardthinking pop song that many an indie band would die
for; Future This, thankfully, has about four or so more
to spare.
Aside from trying-too-hard-to-be-arock-band in Lose Your Mind, The Big Pink show a
remarkable skill in sticking to what they know, be it
typical dance-rock sing-a-longs like Jump Music or
slightly off-kilter but still pleasantly palatable synthpop numbers like Hit The Ground (Superman).
However, for all the immediacy inherent in
Future This, it’s hard to imagine listening to this album
in a different time and place (say, next winter) and
still having that instant connection. For better or for
worse, Future This is a product of the here and now,
but who can be mad at The Big Pink for seizing it for
all its worth?
_JENNIFER PETERSON-WARD

_JENNIFER PETERSON-WARD

THE LITTLE WILLIES
For The Good Times

BILL RYDER-JONES
If

EMI

Domino Records

She may have made a name
for herself as the multimillion selling singer that
put smooth lounge like jazz
back onto the charts, but
Norah Jones is clearly a student of country’s finest
writers.
The second album from The Little Willies,
For The Good Times finds Jones again dicking around
with the likes of Richard Julian and Jim Campillongo
as she wraps her sultry tones around another dozen
country classics.
The strength of The Little Willies is that
they are clearly playing these songs for the love of
them and the fact that you may be listening is a
complimentary concern. Lovesick Blues may have
been made famous by Hank Williams, but even if
you didn’t know the tune Jones and Julian turn it on
its ear as they craft honey harmonies over brushed
drums.
No-one is sacred as they delve into
the catalogues of Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn,
Kristofferson and Johnny Cash, Jones can drag out a
sizeable drawl with the best of them when motoring
through If You’ve Got The Money I’ve Got The Time, but
it is the slowed down Jolene that will be the money
maker this time around.
She may now be sporting tattoos on her
inner arm, but fashion isn’t driving this latest offering.
For The Good Times is a modest and heartfelt walk
through the classics where size doesn’t matter.

Best known as the original
guitarist for seminal British
‘90s outfit The Coral, Bill
Ryder-Jones’ If, a score
inspired by Italo Calvino’s
novel If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller, is a long way from
the Liverpool band’s psychedelic folk; in fact it barely
features any guitars at all.
Featuring tinkling pianos and occasionally
more dramatic orchestrations with strings, brass and
percussion, each of the record’s 10 tracks directly
corresponds with the chapters of Calvino’s novel, for
example opener If… evokes imagery of a steamy
small-town railway station in northern Italy, while By
The Church Of Apollonia recounts a sinister sex scene
involving two military officials and the women they
both love.
Ryder-Jones is a purveyor of technically
perfect orchestrations that can indeed by admired as
art, but that’s to miss his greatest strength: his honest
primitivism. He may scatter guitar notes like silver
confetti over his ‘songs’, but the use of samples, which
are often delivered as little more than raw material
and drum patterns and are frequently childlike in their
deliberate simplicity, imbue his work with a potent
sense of nostalgia, rejecting passing musical fads in
favour of a timeless, almost classical approach.
It’s art, and it’s technique, but it also exhibits
that magical ability to secrete itself in your heart as
much as your head.
_JENNIFER PETERSON-WARD

_CHRIS HAVERCROFT

DAVID MYLES
Into The Sun
Little Tiny Records/MGM

CAN
Tago Mago

Canadian singer/songwriter
David Myles is a man
of simple pleasures. A
message he proudly uses to
knit together the 13 happy tracks on his sixth album.
Into The Sun is Myles’ introduction to Australian
audiences bringing his unique fusion of Brazilian
beats, folk/pop music and summery attitude.
There is an unprecedented smile
permanently fixed in the singer’s voice and
in acapella Run Myles really accentuates his
smoothness. There are hints of Coldplay’s Chris
Martin in Myles’ voice but luckily this sounds
more like well meaning allusion rather than mere
imitation.
David’s real talent however lies within
his song writing. A straightforward appreciation for
life compels him to resonate “How’d I get so lucky?”
in Simple Pleasures as the acoustic guitar playfully
nods along in agreement.
A ‘heart on his sleeve’ kind of guy Myles
hums “I’ve fallen in love” in Falling In Love. The
Brazilian and African inspired beats are notable in
The Bottom, an instrumental jam featuring carnival
horns (performed by Myles) and bouncing bass.
Into The Sun is such a peaceful record and
delivered in a vintage Buddy Holly inspired naivety.
Acoustic and raw, David Myles fits into summer
like a glove and it’s any wonder why he’s taken six
albums to get to our shores.

In his seminal work on
the underground music
scene in Germany in the
‘70s,
Krautrocksampler,
musicologist Julian Cope
wrote that Can’s Tago Mago
“sounds only like itself, like no-one before or after”.
40 years on from the album’s initial release, it’s an
observation that still holds true.
There have been many bands who have
attempted to recreate the heady, woozy, dark whirl
of rhythms invoked on Tago Mago – from the
Flaming Lips to Radiohead – yet none of them have
ever managed to truly capture the combination of
the sinister and the sublime that have made this
wonderful record such a modern classic.
The recently released 40th anniversary
reissue of Can’s seminal record sees their uniquely
European, highly influential avant-funk sounding
every bit as fresh as it did back in 1971. From bigbeat floor filler Mushroom to the deliberately
disjointed Halleluwah, it’s resoundingly clear that
this is Can’s best, most rewarding album and one of
the greatest krautrock records the world will likely
ever hear.

_CHELA WILLIAMS

_JENNIFER PETERSON-WARD

www.xpressmag.com.au

Key Tracks:
Peking O.

Mushroom,

Halleluwah,

and

21

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X-Press â&#x20AC;&#x201C; First on the street, Wednesdays

www.xpressmag.com.au

23

PUGSLEY BUZZARD
Boogie Nights

Pugsley Buzzard will be performing his Chicago
Typewriter show at the Perth Town Hall as part
of the Fringe World Festival 2012 from January
27-31. Tickets are available from fringeworld.
com.au. Buzzard will also be returning to WA
for a special one-off show at The Ellington Jazz
Club on Sunday, February 26.Visit ellingtonjazz.
com.au for more information.
Pugsley Buzzard’s face is the kind you can carve
on an orange; squeeze it one way and it laughs,
another and it howls and another it bawls. Like
many eclectic jazz and blues performers before
him, this battery of expressions is part of his stockin-trade as an entertainer, for, as the self-described
“grizzly bear in a porkpie hat” attests, he is in the
laughter business as much as the jazz business.
Buzzard’s self-described “whorehouse
blues with fancy piano” style draws from a rich
vein of piano based music – from New Orleans
funk, Swampshack jazz and Barrelhouse blues to
modern improvisations. “It’s like a cantankerous
mule towing a speakeasy full of drunken gorillas
through a glass factory,” Buzzard jokes when
describing his sound.
A lifelong music aficionado, Buzzard’s
current style places a special concentration on
jazz, which reflects his enduring love of the genre.
“I’ve played music since childhood. I
started on piano and violin then moved onto
trumpet and later on to guitars and bass,” Buzzard
reminisces. “I played around Perth in indie bands
as well as jazz and blues bands. I ran a chamber
orchestra for a while that got its start at the Artrage
Festival. I also composed music for other film and
theatre projects. Ten or so years ago I started
traveling overseas and around Australia. It was in
Europe I really started refining what I do now. Folks
there liked my singing and piano playing. I’ve been
pretty much focused on that since.”
One of Australia’s finest consummate
artists, Buzzard has performed all over the world
from the smoky jazz cellars of Berlin to downtown
New Orleans. Buzzard has also enjoyed an
unprecedented burst of success over the last few
years, not least of which included taking out top
honors in the Jazz/Blues Category at the eWorld
music awards last year.
“It’s nice to be appreciated, even by a
bunch of remote music industry execs in California.

24

Pugsley Buzzard
But I’m a pretty stubborn kind of mule. I follow my
instinct [and] I know when I’m on the right course.
I can’t be deterred. Awards and such things don’t
mean that much to me personally but I guess it is
some kind of validation,” he says.
Buzzard is set to dazzle and delight local
audiences during a series of rollicking live shows
as part of the Fringe World Festival later this month.
“I’ll be spinning some yarns and
cracking some tunes open with the band,” Buzzard
concludes, “So hipsters, flipsters and finger poppin’
daddies and mammas come on down to the Perth
Town Hall and get yer funky selves booglarised.”
_JENNIFER PETERSON-WARD

La Havre is very much a genre movie, in that the
audience this film is intended for will likely find it
charming, funny and appreciate its relaxed style. But
on the flip-side people who can’t jump on board
with a movie of this pace will no doubt find it boring,
polarising and not engaging.
The second movie in French by Finnish film
maker Aki Kaurismäki, La Havre has a simple, no-frills
plot that focuses on a few uncomplicated characters
in the sleepy, quaint French town of La Havre. Marcel
Marx (André Wilms) is an elderly gentleman, a happy
shoe-shiner who earns little money but lusts after
nothing more. Every night he returns to his waiting
wife Arletty, whom he adores, kissing her and sitting
down to a very French dinner of bread and cheese.
Marcel is clearly loved in the small town, as he charms
a loaf of bread from his friendly neighbour and wine
from the local bar, putting it all on a tab they know
he won’t pay. But as a man who takes, he gives just as
much, giving every Euro he earns to his wife’s biscuit
tin of savings.
One day while working on the streets he
comes across a small African child, Idrissa, running
from the police. Idrissa came in to France with the rest

www.xpressmag.com.au

of his family stowed away in a shipping container but
the French immigration officials managed to catch
the container before they could exit and disappear
in to the town, with only Idrissa able to escape. News
of the runaway immigrant spreads fast in the port
town, as police search residences and stores to find
him. Possessing an empathetic and kind heart, Marcel
decides to hide the boy and help him finish his
journey to London, where the rest of Idrissa’s family
resides.
Clean and simple editing of long, stoic
shots makes this film feel like it came from a different
era. In fact, if it were in black and white and not colour,
you could easily assume it was. But that is where it
gains charm, as the cinematography never gets in
the way of the film, letting it unfold as naturally as
the writing sometimes feels. It’s almost static editing
leaves it with the feeling of an indie short-film, who
I would most link to American Jim Jarmusch, but is
also the dominating style of all of Kaurismäki’s work.
Of course, as the name might imply, the
town of La Havre plays the role of a character just
as much as the actors. The picturesque town has its
own cast of locals, from the burly men at the bar to
Little Bob, a small elderly man who is the town’s rock
star. Actually I really could have done with out Little
Bob, with a long, unedited scene of him performing
a cover song live being a really down point in the
movie. But hey, the older people in the audience
seemed to really love this bizarre diversion in the film.
La Havre will find a happy home with its
intended audience, but mainstream movie goers will
probably be unfulfilled. Personally I found it soulful
and deep, yet uncomplicated and engaging.
_TOM VARIAN

Arrietty

HIROMASA YONEBAYASHI
Acing Arrietty
Disney is easily the most widely recognised
animation studio in the world, but the most beloved,
the one whose very mention puts a smile on the face
of its devoted fans, is Japan’s Studio Ghibli. Under the
stewardship of legendary director Hayao Miyazaki,
Studio Ghibli have produced an impressive number
of classic films over the past 25 years, among them
the seminal My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away, and
Howl’s Moving Castle.
Their latest, Arrietty, is an adaptation of
English author Mary Norton’s much loved children’s
novel, The Borrowers. It is also one of the few Ghibli
films to be helmed by someone other than Miyazaki
himself, in this case debut director Hiromasa
Yonebayashi. But the 36 year old animator - the
youngest ever director of a Ghibli production - is at
pains to point out that the studio founder was very
much involved in the making of the film.
“Mr Hayao Miyazaki is the mastermind
behind this project,” he says. “In fact, he had wanted
to adapt The Borrowers himself some 40 years ago.”
And though the film had long been in
gestation in the mind of Miyazaki, Yonebayashi
admits to being newcomer to Norton’s world of tiny,
secretive humans.
“I am sorry to say that before Mr Miyazaki
asked me to direct this film, I had never read the
original novels,” he explains. “When Mr Miyazaki and
producer Toshio Suzuki asked me if I would direct
the next film, I had never considered the job of
directing ever and did not think that I was capable
of it. Therefore, I turned down the offer at first.”

Part of that initial trepidation came from
the fact that Arrietty would not only be Yonebayashi’s
first film as director, it would also mark the first time
that one of the studio’s animators stepped up to call
the shots. “I felt the pressure. I still do not understand
why I was asked to direct this film. The producer Mr
Suzuki said he had offered me the job after hearing
Mr Miyazaki talk about my work on the last film,
Ponyo, whereas Mr Miyazaki said he had a hunch.”
As an animator, Yonebayashi was able to
bring a very specific visual style to the film. “I wanted
it to be a film that can only be done in animation. It
is convenient to exaggerate or even be untruthful in
animation, for example expanding the kitchen space
further than it should in the first scene where Arrietty
enters the kitchen, or drawing things that you would
normally find around you in gigantic sizes. We also
worked very hard to animate the movement of water
which would be difficult to do in real live features…"
But he also looked to more traditional live
action cinema for inspiration. “When designing the
look of the little people, I watched several films which
featured Irish characters; for example Ryan’s Daughter
and Gone With The Wind. I also used as reference The
Secret Garden and Toma’s Heart (a Japanese comic)
while I was drawing the storyboards. You may see
their influences in the film’s visual style.”
_TRAVIS JOHNSON

25

STRUTATHON
Body Movin’

STRUTathon will take over the Perth Institute
of Contemporary Arts on Saturday, January 28,
from 12pm-10pm. Tickets are available by visiting
fringeworld.com.au or pica.org.au.

Brian Finkelstein

THREE STRIKES

Brian Finkelstein: Reluctant
Activist
Three Strikes is on show at the PICA Performance
Space as part of the Summer Nights program,
from Tuesday, January 31, ’til Saturday, February 4.
Bookings can be made via blueroom.org.au.
American writer/storyteller Brian Finkelstein believes
that “everybody has one good story,” and to prove his
point he’s here in Perth to help aspiring writers discover
and craft their tales, and share a few of his own.
“Everybody has a heartbreak story, or a travel
story or a death story or a birth story or something like
that. Some stories pull on heartstrings and make small
things interesting,” he shares when asked about what
constitutes a good yarn.
Here in Perth to stage Three Strikes, a
conversational performance piece about his
involvement in, you guessed it, three strikes - including
the 2009 American Writers’ Strike, during which he was
employed as a writer on the Ellen DeGeneres Show Finkelstein is looking forward to talking about a subject
which is often overlooked.
“There are certain things I feel like people
don’t talk about and I think those topics are getting
harder to find for me because between the internet
and cable TV there’s so many things people talk about
now. The Writers’ Strike was a politically charged thing
because of the unions and the politics of television and
I felt like nobody was talking about it. I went on strike
as a writer and it was crazy and I still don’t really know
what happened. I thought it would be fun to do a show
about that because nobody else seemed to be doing
it.”
Though he engaged in industrial action
alongside his fellow writers, Finkelstein wasn’t thrilled

about not being able to do the job he loved, and feels
like very little was achieved by the three month stand.
“I would say I was a reluctant activist. When
the Writers’ Strike happened it was kind of fun because
writers aren’t violent - they’re pretty nice, slightly
chubby people who eat donuts. So the strike wasn’t
aggressive. I felt loyalty to my job and the union so I was
conflicted about what I should do. After everything you
believe in falls apart as you get older, knowing what the
right thing to do is becomes hard.
“I picketed for the entire strike. We would
chant ‘what do we want? A contract! When do we want it?
Now!’. Everyone would show up and make the joke that
‘hey, as writers we should come up with better chants’ but
nobody did, we’d just joke about it, which is the nature
of comedy writers – to joke about it and not fix it.”
During the strike Finkelstein ended up
getting to know talk show host Jay Leno, who visited
the picketers to show support for his writing team, so
Finkelstein was understandably appalled when Leno
changed his tune and ‘scabbed’.
“Leno would bring lunch for his writers and
also give us lunch so I got to talk to him a lot, he’s a
crazy bastard. It’s hard because I don’t want to make it
too specific or political but what happened was some
shows went back on air and Jay was critical of that but
then as soon as David Letterman went back because
his company signed a deal with the union, Jay, without
a deal, scabbed – he went back to work. He flip flopped
and changed his opinion when it became about him
which I think is a wimpy move. He’s kinda like a giant
hypocrite. He sat there and bitched to us about the
other shows… The union came out and said he was
in contempt but then nothing happened. To me that’s
the whole thing – if I went back to work I would have
been in trouble but Jay Leno got away with it. It seems
to me that striking is an outdated concept.”
_EMMA BERGMEIER

Since 2002 STRUT Dance has been the artistic hub
for contemporary dance in Western Australia. The
brainchild of Sue Peacock and Gaberielle Sullivan,
STRUT aims to connect quality contemporary dance
with audiences. Now, a decade since they first began,
STRUT is celebrating their 10 year anniversary with
a birthday party of a lifetime – a 10 hour marathon,
or STRUTathon, celebrating low-fi, experimental short
works choreographed by past and present STRUT
members.
Artistic director Sue Peacock describes
STRUTathon as not a “standard theatrical performance.”
Alternative and informal, this wholly unique
performance piece offers the audience the opportunity
to act as a fly on the wall – coming and leaving as they
please.“We’re doing 10 hours of non stop performance,
which means that there’s actually three programs of
work and they’re repeated three times – ABC ABC ABC
– and it happens over a 10 hour period.”
“There’s one person I can think that might
be crazy enough to sit there for 10 hours! I think for
most people the idea is that you can come and go, so
the way that it’s set up you can stay and watch the first
program, then you can go out and have a bit a break,
and skip a program then come back and watch the
third one, and then see the second one the next time...
so there’s all those kind of possibilities I guess in terms
of the audience being able to watch it,” says Peacock.
Each program contains works from dancers
and choreographers of vastly varied and different
backgrounds. “Some are from much long standing
members, quite experienced choreographers, and
others are from quite new graduates,” says Peacock.
“Claudia Alessi is doing a duet that I think is from about
2004 called Blind Date with Stephen Carlton, who is
a very experienced performer in Perth. They’re both
mature artists, and it’s more theatre based – the dancing
in it is kind of a little bit nostalgic, light entertaining.
“In contrast to that there’s a work called Lace
by Isabella Stone who’s a newer Strut member, and that
work she presented last year, and it’s a dance work for
four female dancers, so quite a different style – more
pure movement.”
For Peacock, this event is a celebration of all
that has made STRUT Dance unique and beautiful over
the past decade, as well as the prelude to great things
to come. ���As I know there hasn’t been a dance thing
in quite this format in Australia!,” she says. “We’re just
looking forward to a really big year – we’ve got some
great guests coming over, and there’s some really cool
things happening in the second half of the year, so we’re
sort of starting off with a bang and then continuing all
year.”

STRUTathon

_LEAH BLANKENDAAL

THE DAY THE SKY
TURNED BLACK
Dark Day

The Day The Sky Turned Black plays at the PICA
Performance Space from Tuesday, January 31, to
Saturday, February 4. Bookings via pica.org.au.
Writer and actor Ali Kennedy-Scott remembers vividly
where she was when Victoria burned in 2009.
“I was at drama school in Bristol when
the Black Saturday bushfires happened,” she recalls.
“And I think when anything like that happens to your
country when you’re far away from it, you feel very
strongly about it. I felt quite helpless, and I wasn’t
able to do much when seeing the images and the
story and all that. It makes you strongly want to do
something, and also strongly realise how far you are
from home.”
That sense of distance and
disempowerment planted the first seeds of what
would become the one-woman play The Day The Sky
Turned Black, but it took an extra push to really get
the ball rolling.
“There were a couple of comments,”
Kennedy-Scott says. “Most people that I spoke to
there were so supportive, but there were a few
people that I encountered who said things like, ‘Oh,
doesn’t Australia always get bushfires?’ and ‘Why do
those people build their houses so close to the bush?’
and that kind of attitude, which made me want
to give them the facts so I could say ‘No, this isn’t
actually an ordinary bushfire. It’s actually threatening
cities the size of Bendigo’. Let’s not blame the people.
Our country’s full of bush; that’s just the way it is. I
realised that there were the most incredible stories of
bravery, and people pulling together, and people just
not giving up. I was just so inspired by these stories
that I thought it would be amazing to share them
with people in the UK, and then to share them back
home.”
Armed with her theatrical training and a
strong desire to set the record straight, she threw
herself into research upon her return to Australia,
embarking on a long pre-production process.
“I interviewed a journalist who’d covered
the bushfires in Victoria, and she became the first
character in the play,” she tells us. “I spent the next
six months working on it, interviewing people, and
tracking down a psychologist who specialises in
arson to understand bushfire arsonists. I came up
with an hour long, one act series of monologues that
26

The Day The Sky Turned Black
follows five different characters: three survivors of the
fire - a little boy, a school teacher, and a grandmother;
the mother of an arsonist; and a journalist. The play
traces from the day before the fires hit until the
anniversary.”
And though the characters and events of
the play are, strictly speaking, fictional, Kennedy-Scott
was careful to portray the disaster as truthfully as
possible, letting the facts carry the emotional weight
of the narrative. “One character - Heidi, the journalist
- is verbatim, but the other four are fictional. They’re
based on things that would have happened, or did.
For example, the little boy talks about the post box
being the only thing of his house that survived, and
I’d seen a photo of a post box with the whole house
behind it destroyed. So there are different snippets
conglomerated into these characters, I suppose.”
_TRAVIS JOHNSON
X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

brazen ladies are often hilarious and all too
familiar - you can’t help but wonder about
I Disperse You: Feast Your Eyes Gallery Space, the risks being taken and the unforeseen
consequences of this ‘harmless’ night out. Runs
Fremantle
In her first solo exhibition, Sara Winfield explores from Jan 31-Feb 4. Bookings can be made via
feelings of loss, disappointment and fragility, blueroom.org.au or fringeworld.com.au.
while simultaneously addressing notions of
ambition and optimism. Each work gives you Polly’s Waffle: The Treasury West Wing, Perth
a sense of your own feelings and energies Polly’s Waffle is edgy, provocative theatre for
escaping the body and dispersing into your those who like their entertainment dark and
risqué. It’s an ultra-black, high-impact comedy
surrounds. Runs Jan 20-Feb 2.
dealing with female lust and gluttony and
Inside The Little Kingdom: Kurb Gallery, uses explicit language and bawdy humour to
explore the link between sexual anorexia and
Northbridge
On show as part of the Fringe World Festival gluttony, and the anorexia and gluttony we
2012, Inside The Little Kingdom, a solo exhibition more commonly associate with food. Season
of recent work by Abdul-Rahman Abdullah runs from Feb 2-7. Bookings via fringeworld.
explores a search for identity, sorting through com.au.
the cultural baggage of a childhood buried in
faded memories and family lore that resonates Checkout - The Musical: Treasury Postal Hall,
from a time of absolutes. Runs from Jan 29-Feb 3. Perth
Welcome to Super Savings, a local supermarket
The Unknown By The More Unknown: OK that brings you more! Run by six hopeless
misfits completely unaware of their own
Gallery, Northbridge
In his first solo exhibition, The Unknown By The peculiarities. When their beloved store manager
More Unknown, David Egan presents a charismatic Yasmin is murdered, everyone is a suspect, but
constellation of paintings and objects examining who done it? Was it Vince the footy obsessed
pop culture mysteries and vernacular theories deli boy; the psychic Fruit stacker Rhys; Wendy
- in which established methods of knowing the animal loving vegetarian; the food loving
are hijacked and subverted by the incurably Italian Conchetta; the flirty Tiffany or the
curious - investigating the infinite potential of lovably confused foreigner Alexei? Season runs
interpretation and understanding in cultural from Feb 2-8. Bookings via fringeworld.com.au.
communication. Runs from Feb 15-Mar 18.
Hope Is The Saddest: PICA Performance
Space, Perth
Returning to Perth after its sell-out debut
season in 2007, Hope Is The Saddest is a bright
black comedy about death, delusion, and Dolly
Romeo & Juliet: Quarry Amphitheatre, Floreat Parton. Marion has inherited a mansion and
Presented by the Perth City Ballet, with direction moved out of the suitcase she grew up in. Theo
from Diana Waldron, this production is a is a would-be inventor working on his first
stunningly beautiful realisation in dance of the masterpiece. Hope is a vibrant optimist set to
world’s best known love story set to Prokofiev’s win over the homosexual love of her life with
exciting and haunting music. This will be a true the music of Dolly Parton. Season runs from
love story with the star-crossed lovers, Romeo Feb 7-11. Bookings via fringeworld.com.au.
& Juliet, danced by husband and wife, Sergey
Pevnev and Fiona Evans, who appear courtesy of Standing Bird: PICA Performance Space,
the West Australian Ballet. Season runs from Jan Perth
Sally Richardson is proud to present the
18-21. Bookings via Ticketmaster.
world premiere of Standing Bird, a dynamic
Occupied: The Blue Room Theatre, Northbridge dance/film/theatre collaboration between
Artists from around Australia will join local West Australia’s leading independent artists.
independent dance artist Ashleigh Berry to In a bravura solo performance by Jacqui
present her edgy new dance theatre work Claus, one of the State’s most exciting young
Occupied. In a nightclub bathroom, we meet dancers, Standing Bird spirals the audience
a group of young women. Strangers at first, into an experience of submersion, dislocation,
they become linked only for one night. The isolation and transformation. Season runs from
interactions between these drunk, bold and Feb 7-12. Bookings via fringeworld.com.au.

VISUAL ARTS

THEATRE/DANCE

I Disperse You by Sara Winfield

ZSADAR

Let’s Hear It For The Boys
When it comes to Australian designer fashion, ladies
are spoilt for choice with labels and boutiques a’plenty,
but it seems stylish gents don’t have it quite so easy.
Frustrated by a lack of high quality Australian designer
menswear available for chaps such as himself, Perth
lad Shane Newton abandoned his flourishing career in
public relations back in 2010 to pursue life as a fashion
designer and since launching his own label, Zsadar
(pronounced sha-dar), the emerging designer has gone
from strength to strength.
“When I left school I did graphic design
at TAFE,” Newton begins when asked about his
background. “I wanted to be a designer, well at least
that’s what I thought I wanted to do, but I did that for a
year and decided it wasn’t something I could see myself
doing for the rest of my life. I ended up doing Public
Relations and Media Studies at ECU then did an honors
degree in PR, which was great, I loved it. After that I got
a full time job in PR and it came to a point where I felt
like there was a lack of variety in Australian designer
menswear, so I decided to give it a go and see what
happened. It was one of those tipping point moments
where I thought ‘if I don’t do this now I’ll never do it’. So I
gave it a go. I’d always loved fashion but found it difficult
to find Australian made, locally designer menswear.”
Establishing a label without any formal
training hasn’t been an easy process for Newton, but
the designer has triumphed regardless, and he says that
with every collection the process becomes easier.
“I don’t have a technical fashion background
so I work with pattern makers. I sketch all of the
garments and then my pattern maker interprets that.
I do all the choosing of fabrics and the look and feel
of the whole collection, themes, colours, etc. I first and
foremost design for myself. Every garment I make is
something that I want to wear. It’s a bit self indulgent
really!”
Self indulgent or not, Zsadar has gained
a huge following since debuting at StyleAid a few
years back, appealing to men who like their clothes
monochromatic, minimalist and executed with the
finest eco-friendly fabrics available.
“The main thing I think about is the quality,
especially when it comes to choice of fabric – I search all
over the place to find high quality, organic fabrics (they
feel so good on the skin),” Newton explains of his design
priorities.“My next collection has 100 per cent silk pants
for guys – I’ve never been able to find silk for men in
Australia. It’s not silk that has that stereotypical glossy
sheen, this is matte, it’s like a tweed. I make sure that I
www.xpressmag.com.au

Zsadar’s Minimalia collection

“I felt like there was a lack
of variety in Australian
designer menswear, so I
decided to give it a go and
see what happened”

have really beautiful fabrics – I’m also using bamboo
fabric. It’s a lot more sustainable than cotton – it grows
so fast, so it’s easy to produce and manufacture. I try to
pick things that have a great feel on the skin.”
Entitled Minimalia, Zsadar’s soon-to-bereleased Autumn/Winter 2012 collection is a chic,
refined and stylish affair, executed with Newton’s
favourite monochromatic tones.
“I love the classic nature of monochromatic
colours. I love a muted palette because it can transcend
seasons, although black can be hard to pull of in 40
degree heat,” he says with a chuckle on a particularly
hot Perth day. “Generally speaking, muted tones make
people look good – everyone looks good in black
whereas your brighter colours are trickier to pull off.”
Though he’s never considered designing
clothes specifically for women, it seems that there are
lots of ladies who love Zsadar and are happy to rock
menswear.
“I’ve never really thought about womenswear
to be honest. A lot of people say to me that I should
give womenswear a go. It’s interesting that a lot of the
designs for the Creature And The Mirror collection have

Win a staple curve seam t-shirt
been bought by women. That wasn’t intentional – the
idea behind creating an androgynous collection was
not there – I just made things I wanted to wear and it
just so happened that because they were so minimalist,
they could transcend gender, which is awesome! I like
the idea of me thinking I’m designing menswear then
girls saying ‘I really want to wear that’.”
Zsadar collections are available for purchase
online at zsadar.com.
_EMMA BERGMEIER

As a special treat for X-Press readers, Zsadar
is giving away a staple curve seam t-shirt
valued at $125. Made in Australia using
beautiful stretch jersey which is comfortable
and soft, the tee has a raw scoop neck. To be
in the draw simply like Zsadar’s Facebook
page then email win@xpressmag.com.au with
‘Zsadar’ in the subject line.
27

28

X-Press â&#x20AC;&#x201C; First on the street, Wednesdays

Austrian
drum’n’bass
duo Camo & Krooked
have been signed to Tony
Coleman’s legendary UK
label Hospital Records
for just over a year now. In
that short amount of time,
they’ve toured Europe
and the UK, released their
sophomore record Cross
The Line which took out
the Best EP/Album at the
2011 Drum & Bass Arena
Awards, and were donned
Best Producer at the
awards as well. ANNABEL
MACLEAN chats with
Reinhard Rietsch (Camo)
ahead of the duo’s
upcoming Australian tour.
Reinhard ‘Camo’ Rietsch and Markus
‘Krooked’Wagner aren’t fans of growing
moustaches. But, the rising Austrian
drum’n’bass duo put their opinions
aside for the creation of the tune Make
The Call featuring Bristol drum’n’bass
producer and DJ Tom Casswell (TC)
which was included on the Defected
compilation Mo Grooves, released in
conjunction with Movember last year.
“We are not too big fans of moustaches
and when you grow them in Austria
where they don’t know about that
tradition, you get nothing but some
weird looks,” Rietsch says, having just
woken up in his hometown Vienna.
“But, we’ve been happy to help
the charity with one of our tunes.”

www.xpressmag.com.au

CONTINUED ON PAGE 30

29

STICKY BUSINESS

Camo & Krooked
Since starting out back in 2007, Rietsch and Wagner
have been hailed “one of the biggest talents in
drum’n’bass” by Grooverider and have smashed out
dancefloor anthems Turn Up The Music, Climax and All
Fall Down. They’ve released tracks on Breakbeat Kaos,
AudioPorn, Viper Recordings, Renegade Hardware
and more as well as their 2010 debut record Above
& Beyond and took out Best Newcomer DJ at the
2010 Drum & Bass Arena Awards. “We met at a party
in Krooked’s hometown on New Year’s Eve ‘06/’07
and came into talk about production and found out
we are using both the same setups which made it
easy to work together and share the experience
and knowledge we had so far,” Rietsch says. “So we
decided to make a tune together which ended up
getting signed and been played on BBC Radio1. We
always have a lot of fun producing together so we
kept making tunes until we decided to stop our solo
careers and proceed as Camo & Krooked only.”
The duo were then signed to Hospital
Records in late 2010, joining the likes of London
Elektricity, High Contrast, Netsky and other respected
drum’n’bass artists on the label. “What we like most
about working with Hospital is that they are leaving
us all the freedom in our creative writing process, they
don’t really tell us what to do, it’s all coming from us,”
he says. “The Hospital crew feels like a second family,
it’s a very good working atmosphere. And besides
that, the Hospitality parties are just the best parties
around; [we] love to play a lot of them. Tony [Coleman,
CEO of Hospital Records] is a really nice guy as well
and we are always happy to have meeting with them
and talk about the next steps we will take.”
Since been signed to Hospital, the lads
have played numerous festivals and released their
sophomore record Cross The Line which took out
the Best EP/Album at the 2011 Drum & Bass Arena
Awards. “Last summer was our first intense festival
summer and all of them [shows] have been amazing,

30

loving the vibes and the 100 per cent motivated
crowds,” Rietsch exclaims.“There have been too much
and too long crazy stories!.” Aside from taking out the
Best EP/Album at the Drum & Bass Arena Awards and
Best Video for their game show themed clip for Breeze
Block last year, the pair took out Best Producer as well
and Rietsch says it was massive honour to receive the
award. “That’s the most important category and we
have been nominated with the likes of Noisia, Netsky
and more,” he says. “The event was really nice, the
whole drum’n’bass scene came together and every
label had his own round table with a lot of drinks.
It was a good community and between the award
givings was always some entertainment on the stage
for example by Ayah Marar, a really talented beatboxer or a DJ afterwards.”
The lads have been improving their live
show since kicking it off last September and are
currently working on a remix album of Cross The Line.
“Our next project is the remix album called Between
The Lines,” he says. “We are more than happy with it
and it contains remixes by friends of ours in the scene
as remixes we have done for our own tunes. We can’t
wait until it gets released!
“After that we will start working on our
next album and make some more remixes and
works for computer games or trailers… We have
made some tunes for the soundtrack of SSX, Forza
Motorsport 4 and a couple more games and [have]
been included on the trailer for the forthcoming
James Bond GoldenEye game.”
Excited to be heading down under for
Heavyweight Soundz alongside drum’n’bass legend
Andy C, DJ Fierce and MC GQ, the lads anticipate
spending Australia Day “on the beach having a
barbeque.” “Our DJ set differs a lot from other DJ
sets,” he says.“We always play out together. So we can
use the magic of four hands on three or sometimes
even four CDJs. We try to squeeze in as many tunes
as possible without sounding too busy.
“We spend a lot of time trying to find the
right mixes in the studio. We are bringing a lot of
unreleased material with us, the whole remix album
and a couple more forthcoming bits. We can’t wait
to come to Australia as it’s winter here and summer
there, have to catch up some sun… can’t wait for the
party, we have looked up videos about it and it looks
sick!”

Professor Green

Hailing from the land of Canada, Stickybuds is a
man on a mission. He’s nominated for Best Track
and Best Producer for the International BreaksPoll
2012 Awards and his tracks have received global
airplay from the likes of A.Skillz, Fort Know Five
and Featurecast. He’s all about funk breaks, hip
hop, reggae, drum’n’bass and big basslines. He’s
held a residency at Shambhala Music Festival
since 2005 and he’s all about teaching and
sculpting the producers of tomorrow, having
earned himself a teaching role at the Center Of
Arts and Technology in Kelowna. Stickybuds hits
Ambar on Saturday, February 4. Tickets are $15 on
the door. Jump on it.

GETTIN’ PROFESSIONAL

UK rapper Professor Green and our very own
Ruby Rose are down to support pop starlet Jessie
J when she touches down under for her first
headline tour shortly. Having pulled out of the
Future Music Festival lineup last year, we’re keen to
check him out at the festival this year, especially
after his sophomore record At Your Inconvenience
went down a treat in the UK late last year. Ruby
Rose has been taking her beats global and
currently hosts Party People, the #1 rating radio
show on the Today network. It’s all happening on
Monday, March 5, at Challenge Stadium. Hit up
Ticketmaster to snatch tickets now.

BURRIDGE BEATS

“I don’t take my computer clubbing”,“I play the
triangle” and “I love you” are all random parts of
DJ Lee Burridge’s random facts/biography on
Pulse Radio’s website. The man who discovered
the underground scene early in Hong Kong,
partnered up with Craig Richards back in the
early noughties as the duo Tyrant and received
a residency at Fabric, played Thailand Full Moon
parties and recently hooked up with producer
and DJ Matthew Dekay, forming All Day I Dream
(Brooklyn party and label) hits Perth on Friday,
February 24, at a soon to be announced venue
for Likes Of You. The venue is announced just
before the gig. Hit up Finely Tuned on Facebook
to keep updated.

KRS-One

I’M ON A BOAT

That’s right y’all. The “Teacha” aka the legendary
KRS-One is embarking on a month long boat
cruise from America to the land down under. KRSOne is considered the best live hip hop MC of all
time (yeah boi!). With 20 albums under his belt,
KRS-One has literally written the most rhymes in
hip hop history. In addition to lecturing at over
500 universities in the U.S and publishing three
books, KRS-One has also established the Stop
The Violence Movement. He’s a massive dude, no
further words of explanation. KRS-One hits Metro
City on Friday, March 23. Tickets are on sale from
oztix.com.au tomorrow, Thursday, January 19.
Prepare for a mental night of hip hop at its best!

If you’re keen to continue the Australia Day celebrations, The Court is the place to be come Saturday, January
28. Celebrating all things gay and all things Australian, DJ, radio and TV host Ruby Rose, Skarlett Saramore,
big name on the gay circuit over east Alex Taylor, Judas Twins, Timbee and Dannyboi & Skooby will all be
pumping out beats from behind the decks as part of Big Gay Out 2012. The one and only Hannah Conda will
be putting on a drag show too. Presale tickets are $20 and can be snatched up from The Court now and if that
doesn’t take your fancy, risk it on the door on the night. Prepare yourselves.

X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

PLUMP DJS EARGASMIC
Following a prolific and successful second year in a row, eight individuallyacclaimed releases and four sell-out label parties at London venues XOYO
and The Nest, it’s fair enough Plump DJs felt the time was right to release
their very first body of music under their own Grand Hotel Records label.
Preceded by three EPs at the start of the year, Lee Rous tells BIRDIE the fulllength Dirty Weekend will touch down in April 2012.
“We’re really stoked about the new album but we
really love putting on parties in London the most,”
Rous says. “We have been doing this since 1996
and Fabric, in terms of size, has been the largest to
date. But we are getting much joy at the moment
from shows at the nest in Dalston and XOYO where
we do our GH [Grand Hotel] label nights. They
are intimate venues, and provide us with a thrill
that we lost at Fabric, but the Fabric brand is very
strong and the club is still immensely successful.
As for the Plumps’ upcoming show
when they make their much-anticipated return
to Australia, Rous says fans can expect some
fresh stuff as well as some favourites. “Well, Dirty
Weekend is coming so that’s very exciting!,” he
enthuses. “Plus a new Grand Hotel Records release
will be available every month… I don’t want to go
into details of the Australian show; the element of
surprise is always good. All will be revealed on the
night though and we have much new music from
all over the globe – from breaks to bass, and from
house to rave. Plus, we’ll have old and new plump
classics and a chunk of new lumps from the Dirty
Weekend album.”
Also featuring remixes from Detboi,
RESET!, Nom De Strip, Urchins, Blatta And Inesha,
Marten Horger, Bonsai Kat, W.A.F.A., Stanton
Warriors and more, Rous reveals that new
additions, including exclusive singles remixed by
Mark Ronson and Moby, will also be available to
fans in the coming months. “I suppose you could
say we just kept evolving, that’s what happened to
us,” Rous explains. “We still love all the music that
we have made to date, and we are so motivated
by all that is new. It’s healthy for us; we would go
mad if we were still stuck in the same studio with no
windows, and just making big beat every single day
like we did in 1998.
Not that the good old days back in
’98 weren’t memorable – in fact, Rous still gets a
little nostalgic just talking about it. “I remember it

Plump DJs
was the days of the big beat explosion... We [with
Andy Gardner] first started making music together
around then, in 1998,” he says. “In a way, we are still
making the same music today because the beats
are still big, the attitude is bolshy and ballsy – we
are still Andrew and Lee in a Soho basement playing
with synths. But we’ve also grown in a lot of ways.
“It’s possible to evolve and get better
while being the same person with the same taste.
There is no one defining era for us, but musically,
our new-skool monster Skram, electro-fuelled
Electric Disco and disco-infused War Galaxy remix
are benchmarks. More recently, Light Fantastic and
Gobstopper are triumphs as well, in my opinion, and
all those 100 releases that we had out in between
1998 and 2012 that we love so dearly – none of
them are ever forgotten!”

» PLUMP DJS
» WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25 @ VILLA

MC GQ MAD REAL
MC GQ is one of the most prominent names in the drum’n’bass genre and
is a gentle, almost spiritual human being. Known to some as Gary Francis,
the English MC has been behind the microphone for over 15 years, making
a name for himself in the jungle scene back in the ‘80s. RK talks to the main
man on the microphone ahead of his appearance at Heavyweight Soundz.
MC GQ isn’t brash or obnoxious – rather, he comes
across as a minister in an MC suit. “I don’t think we
even have enough time to discuss my whole story,”
chimes the affable Brit, walking down a dark street
from the bus stop. “I come from a musical family
background. My brothers and father were playing
music in the house – upstairs it was soul and funk and
downstairs it was calypso and other stuff. My brother
was also involved in the local sound systems and they
would go out and play parties, that kind of thing.”
Francis was sneaking out of his house
before the legal party age and as a result, he grew
up fast and dived into the scene as a young, fresh
face. Absolutely fascinated with music and words,
he wanted to emulate what he was exposed to, with
the desire to get a name and a rep. “As the years
progressed, I started getting into raving; and hip hop
was this big thing in school,” he says. “Everybody
wanted to be a rapper and I was into the whole
Wildstyle movement - and I wanted to be a DJ also.”
What most don’t know is that GQ was
playing music well before he was an MC. As he got
older, the stalwarts of the industry – guys like DJ
Hype – watched him do his thing. “I was hanging out
with all these guys who were older than me,” he says.
“Frankie Bones was the DJ one night and I hosted the
evening.” As the scene evolved from acid house to
rave and hardcore and, of course, into drum’n’bass, he
was there. “There is a lot of history,” he reminisces. It
was when he secured a residency at the well-known
London club AWOL where he represented alongside
the likes of Mickey Finn, Kenny Ken, Grooverider and
Randall, that a buzz around him started to build.
Today, his main partner in crime is the
venerable genre champ, Andy C. The two have worked
together forever and have a mutual respect for one
another. “The hook-up with Andy just happened
because we’d worked together for such a long time,”
he says. “Back in the day, we were doing gigs at
universities and stuff. Andy would stay with me and
I’ve really witnessed him come through and do his
thing. We have a great relationship as friends; we’re
www.xpressmag.com.au

MC GQ
from the same agency and we just clicked. I will always
know what he is about to do and it’s us, we’re a real
team.”
Sure GQ has other irons in the fire, but he
admits he misses Andy when they’re apart or not
working together. That said; he is doing some time in
the studio at present, working on some broken beat
and drum’n’bass. “For me, life is really busy right now,”
he says. “I’m enjoying doing some producing and
sitting behind the desk and twiddling knobs.”

VIVA LA REVOLUCIÓN!
IMMORTAL TECHNIQUE/ Akir/ Poison Pen/
Clandestien/ Cortex/ King Leonidas & Paulie P
Villa
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Incendiary Peru-born, New York raised rapper
Immortal Technique’s first visit to Australia was highly
anticipated – a Facebook page calling for him to tour
received 6000 ‘likes’ – and Villa was packed for his
Perth show.
Technique’s focus on poverty, racism
and politics (not to mention a strong dose of
revolutionary rhetoric) has earned him a particularly
fervent fan base. It also made for an interesting
audience. Amongst the usual hip hop crowd were
numerous Che Guevara and “Investigate 9/11” shirts
and a few older blokes sporting dreadlocks.
Upcoming local rappers Leonidas, Cortext
and Paulie P opened the night with a set of solo
and collaborative tracks, with Cortex’s New World City
receiving a particularly loud response. Perth icons
Clandestien followed, performing hits including
Harvey Wallbanger and L.I.G.T., as well as a track
sampling Australian Crawl’s The Boys Light Up (which,
despite being an unusual approach for the group,
bumped).
DJ Static warmed the crowd up with a
set of crowd pleasers, from House Of Pain’s Jump
Around to Biz Markie’s Just A Friend, before welcoming
Immortal Technique’s associates, Poison Pen and
Akir, onstage for individual sets.
The two artists could hardly have been
more different – Poison Pen a prototypical New York
gangsta rapper and Akir a philosophical, lyrically
nimble MC – but both did a decent job warming up
for the main act. Poison Pen joked with the crowd
about his weight, and had heads nodding to the DJ
Premier-produced The BK Way and his 2004 single I’m
Fuckin’ You Up. Akir, meanwhile, performed a number
of impressive acapellas and the uplifting I Love My Life.
Finally, Immortal Technique took the
stage just before midnight to rapturous cheers.
Unfortunately, as he launched into his infamous hit
Bin Ladin, which accused George Bush’s administration
of lying about the facts surrounding 9/11, it became
clear that he was losing his voice. This didn’t matter
much to the punters though, who seemed content
to simply be in Technique’s presence.
Joined by Poison Pen and Akir, he ran
through a number of crowd favourites including
The 3rd World, Point Of No Return and Peruvian

32

SHAZAM

BOOGIE MADNESS
Cameron Parkin likes to write music
that sounds “just as great in a club
or at a festival as it does in the living
room or a lazy Sunday afternoon
barbeque.” Parkin, known as
Shazam to dancefloor punters and
one half of Perth’s genre-defying
jazz-boogie project Cosmo Gets to
others, talks to ANNABEL MACLEAN
about his new project with Sydney
producer Cassian and 2012.

Shazam

feel free to improvise a lot,” he says.“We feel the most
important part of the recording process is going to
be the ability to capture that vibe.” Parkin notes that
there are a lot of parallels between the sounds of
Shazam and Cosmo Gets and each project influences
the other.
“The way I write music is clearly evident
in both projects, the only difference being that Sam
[Kuzich, drums] is providing the beats in Cosmo
Cameron Parkin might have been the only science Gets. Sometimes when I come up with a nice chord
student at school who used a Moog synthesiser for its progression I find it hard to decide whether I’ll use
prime purpose. “I guess the Moog was probably used it for Shazam or Cosmo Gets. It all depends on the
to study audio waveforms,” he says, talking of the types of sounds I use and the context it’s within.”
Having released material on Modular,
equipment’s inclusion in a school science experiment.
“It has a few Bunsen burner burns on its keys so Bang Gang 12 Inches and Ministry Of Sound,
obviously students weren’t really that interested in Shazam is pumped about his fresh project with
low frequency oscillations and sawtooth waves. A Sydney producer Cassian, Country Club. “We have
Immortal Technique (photo by Matt Jelonek)
lot of my early music is simple piano compositions just finished our first EP and have signed it to the UK
Cocaine, while sipping tea to stop his voice giving out but as I became more interested in electronic music, label Moda run by Jaymo and Andy George. We also
completely. However, even as he was on the verge of I started making everything from acid jazz to cheesy- have a remix out of Monkey Safari and just finished
another for French band Housse De Racket. We are
being unable to speak, he maintained a commanding factory-demo-esque trance.”
Parkin learnt both classical and jazz both very excited about this project… I don’t really
stage presence.
Technique said that he was advised that piano at school before he started sending music want to pigeonhole our sound to any genre, but let’s
if he performed in Perth, he would risk completely to people over music forums. He subsequently just say the tracks go down very well in the club!”
2012 is all about originals productions
losing his voice for his upcoming shows in Adelaide became involved with a few labels including Swank
and Sydney. “I said I do not give a fuck because this Recordings and DAE Recordings and had a couple for Shazam who is releasing his EP in March but
is my first time in Perth,” he rasped, to roars from the of remixes under his belt at the age of 16. “It felt there’ll be some free tracks hitting his Soundcloud
great to have those remixes released back then but in coming weeks too. For now though, it’s all about
crowd.
His haunting tale Dance With The Devil I had a totally different mindset to how I approach Sets On The Beach Vol 5. “I find the beach one of the
received the loudest response of the night, followed music compared to how I do now,” he reflects before most inspiring places to be so to be DJing right in
by set closer Obnoxious. The night ended on an odd, adding, “I also studied composition with the Western the sand with the water behind me is going to be a
but surprisingly fun note, with a beat built around the Australian composer James Ledger which has had a dream come true, I can’t wait!”
William Tell Overture, which had everyone clapping huge influence on me… piano and synthesizer are
their hands. While clearly not the performance fans my weapons of choice these days.”
were hoping for, they still seemed satisfied – and
One only needs to get down to a Cosmo
» SHAZAM
Technique’s promise to come back to Perth soon Gets gig to see Parkin’s talent on the keys. The duo are
» SETS ON THE BEACH VOL 5
surely helped.
about to hit the studio in February to start recording
» SUNDAY, JANUARY 22 @ SCARBOROUGH BEACH
their first EP to be released on Paper Chain. “Cosmo
AMPHITHEATRE
» JOSHUA HAYES
Gets is all about that jam band aesthetic where we

PJ HARVEY
Perth Concert Hall
Friday, January 13, 2012
Taking on the personas of soldiers and observers
floating above battlefields, iconic British singersongwriter PJ Harvey presented an unvarnished
and unromantic view of war on Friday night at the
Perth Concert Hall, her first Australian performance
since the release of her 2011 Mercury Award
winning album Let England Shake.
Dressed in a deliberately rumpled yet
grand floor-length black crinoline dress, black
leather corset and a headdress of ebony feathers,
Harvey opened the show with a slightly quicker
version of the title track from Let England Shake.
From there, she commanded the
audience’s attention, leaning into her autoharp
with her pale skin shimmering under the spotlight
trained on her as she stood alone on the right
side of the stage, as though to emphasise her
observation from the sidelines.
Meanwhile, her impeccably precise
waistcoated band (comprised of former Bad Seed
Mick Harvey, John Parish and Jean-Marc Butty) was
gathered stage left; she would sometimes step
back into the shadows as songs were introduced,
only nearing the microphone when the time was
right.
The effect was heightened by Harvey’s
delicate singing voice – which ranged from a soulplumbing alto to a high-pitched yowl – and by her
extravagantly literary lyrics, which are packed with
pastoral imagery, showy rhymes and archaisms.
Tonight’s performance more than
proved that although Harvey never quite cuts
loose she does rock out, and those more observant
audience members may have caught a glimpse
of sexy high-heeled black leather boots under
her flowing skirt as she swayed sensually in the
darkness at the back of the stage.
Every song from Let England Shake
was played, making for a setlist that was heavily
weighted toward recent material. Although the
tunes were preoccupied with themes of patriotism
and the harsh price that love of country can exact,
Harvey never came off polemical and appeared
far more pensive than strident. The Last Living
Rose and The Glorious Land particularly, excelled

(photo: Dan Grant)
in showcasing her unique brand of scary force and
beautiful restraint.
Yet even though her sense of control
rarely wavered, she still suffered a false start on The
Words That Maketh Murder, from which she and her
band recovered flawlessly.
A few selected cuts from her back
catalogue were also folded seamlessly into the Let
England Shake aesthetic, with the phantom wail of
Dear Darkness (from 2007’s White Chalk), the earthy
seduction of Down By The Water (from 1995’s To
Bring You My Love) and the unfettered rawness of
Pocket Knife (from 2004’s Uh Huh Her) particularly
sympathetic to the bold-yet-vulnerable mood
Harvey was attempting to cultivate.
Much to the disappointment of some
of the more vocal fans, the gifted chanteuse didn’t
offer a great deal in terms of audience interaction
and refrained from uttering a single word to the
audience until the encore, during which she quickly
introduced the band in soft, polite Dorset tones
before cranking up the distortion for a liberating
blast through a three-song encore of Oh God I Miss
You, Angelene and Silence. It was a powerful way
to end what is sure to be one of the most visceral
performances of 2012.
_JENNIFER PETERSON-WARD

Such is the cult of personality around Amanda Palmer
(or Amanda Fucking Palmer, or AFP, or whatever) that
it’s sometimes easy to forget that she used to be in a
band once, and they were pretty good, too. Thursday
night’s gig was a timely reminder that The Dresden
Dolls weren’t just “Amanda Palmer and Some Guy,”
but actually represent some of the best work in
Palmer’s oeuvre.
Melbourne dark cabaret outfit – that’s a
genre now, apparently, and not just a gimmick – The
Jane Austen Argument were greeted warmly by
a crowd far more pumped up and excited than is
normal for these sorts of things. It’s par for the course
that the opening support act gets the cold shoulder
from the crowd, but this lot were so worked up that
even a sound-checking roadie got a roar of approval.
Pianist Tom Dickens and singer Jen Kingwell started
things off nicely, their popularity no doubt buoyed by
the fact that, when you get right down to it, they
may as well be an AFP tribute band.
While that means that they
fit the tone of the night
perfectly, it also means
that there were few
surprises in their set.

The Bedroom Philosopher’s appearance
on the bill was a bit of a surprise in and of itself, with
his self-deprecating musical comedy providing an
odd but pleasing contrast to the broad, baroque
strokes of the other two acts. An early dig at goths and
emos didn’t go down too well – the black clad set are
notoriously humourless when it comes to themselves
– but he won them back quickly and easily enough,
with shared-house psychodrama Megan The Vegan
being the highlight of his slot.
And finally we had The Dresden Dolls,
who could do no wrong in the eyes of faithful.
Palmer’s huge and exuberant personality dominated
the room, while Brian Viglione provided both top
notch instrumentation and a straight man for
Palmer to bounce off of. The rapport the two share
is impressive, and there was never a moment that
wasn’t enthralling.
Interestingly, although their long set –
well in excess of two hours – ranged over the Dolls’
back catalogue, the highlights were undoubtedly
the numerous covers scattered through the night.
Yes, Girl Anachronism, Backstabber and especially
Coin-Operated Boy went down well, but not nearly
as well as a raucous cover of The Beastie Boys Fight
For Your Right. T Rex and Neutral Milk Hotel also got a
look-in, while a powerful rendition of The Mercy Seat
was rendered somewhat meta-textual by the fact
that, presumably unknown to Palmer and company,
former Bad Seed Mick Harvey was in the audience.
Song of the night, though, goes to the version of Black
Sabbath’s War Pigs that got trotted out during the
encore, although a good chunk of the crowd seemed
to not recognise the track.
As usual, AFP hung around afterwards for a
meet and greet, reaffirming
the bonds between
performer and public that
make reviews like this
largely redundant. In the
eyes of her fans, she can
do no wrong.
_TRAVIS JOHNSON

(photo: Emma Bergmeier)

37

VOODOO LOUNGE

INDI BAR

Saturday, January 21, local indie rock staples Sugar
Army are set to charm their audience with a handful
of new material and a brand spanking new five piece
line-up. On Sunday, January 20, Gold Coast-based world
music band A French Butler Called Smith will win over
local music fans with their energetic Gyspy folk tunes
– it’s always a dance off with these lads, so bring your
dancing shoes.

MUSTANG BAR

Combining a shared passion for full-tilt boogie, heavy
psychedelia and classic rock‘n’roll, Datura pull no
punches when it comes to delivering a sound heavy
on riffage and decibel cracking volume. With influences
ranging from Sunbury-era Aztecs and Lobby Lloyd’s
Coloured Balls to Fleetwood Mac and Yardbirds, you
can expect a four-to-the-floor assault on both ears and
speakers this Thursday, January 19.

THE ELLINGTON
JAZZ CLUB

Remember the movie Old School? Well this Friday,
January 20, you can catch all the messy action live
and in-person at the Voodoo Lounge’s Rock‘n’Roll
KY Jelly Wrestling Championships. Instead of using
the traditionally favored frozen jelly, competitors will
be coated in KY Jelly, liberally applied by the “Official
Greasers”. The girls will go at it hammer and tongs and
every rule of lady-like behaviour soon goes out the
door (along with what vestiges of clothing they ever
possessed).

YA YA’S

Local psych-rockers The Witness will join forces with
post-funksters Stereoflower and alt-rockers Antelope
this Saturday, January 21, for an epic evening of original
live music at Ya Ya’s. After the bands have finished
strutting their stuff, The Saturday Night Social continues
with The Kings of Cheese set to slip on some dance
floor classics which will have you dancing the night
away. Entry is $8 on the door.

MOJO’S BAR

A huge week at the Ellington kicks off with the launch
of local contemporary guitarist Rick Webster’s new
album tonight, Wednesday, January 18. Then, having
made a great impact on the UK music scene in recent
years, Grant Windsor (UK) is back for an exclusive show
on Thursday, January 19. Finishing the week off in style,
Analisa Bell is set to charm jazz lovers with Strange
Fruit, a Billie Holiday tribute show, on Sunday, January
22. Check out ellingtonjazzclub.com.au for the weekly
show schedule.

On Friday, January 20, Gold Coast-based world music
band A French Butler Called Smith will take to the
stage to showcase tunes from their recently released
EP Eating Crow. Mojo’s is giving away two double
passes to two lucky lovers of people called Smith,
email mojos@coolperthnights.com with “Eating
Butlers” in the subject line to win. Also, weekly Mojo’s
nights scheduled for this week include Wide Open Mic
Night on Monday, January 23, and Fremantle Blues and
Roots Club Night on tonight, Wednesday, January 18.

THE SHACK

BRASS MONKEY

The Brass Monkey will be putting on one hell of a party
come Australia Day Eve (Wednesday, January 25). Come
down and enjoy the free event, which will feature
an “Aussie Made” fashion show, cool giveaways, live
entertainment, $15 rump steaks and $7.50 Kopparberg
Ciders. On Australia Day, the Triple J hottest 100 will be
counting down from 11am so get down quick to secure
a seat and soak up the awesome Aussie atmosphere.

PADDO

Tonight, Wednesday, January 18, the Paddington Ale
House’s Paddo POW sees John Prosser, Hostile Little
Face and Still Frame Mind taking the stage. Tunes kick
off at 8pm and entry is free.

A new and exciting bar called The Shack has opened
at 418 Murray Street, Perth. A live and vibrant bar, it’s
blue lighting and drop-down projector screen play a
range of music from all eras. An awesome selection
of food and drinks are also on offer, with unique fruit
cocktails served in their own fruit shells, $7 beer, wine
and spirits all day and fresh gourmet burgers and salads
all made onsite to order, with specially blended herb
chips to die for. The Shack has a very unique feel to it
and a laidback atmosphere – simply put it “brings the
beach to the city”.You’ll also find entertainment most
nights - Tuesday night comedy with live comedians,
Thursday caters for backpackers; Friday and Saturday
are always a full house and new Sunday sessions are
set to feature live shows and entertainment. So come
on down and celebrate “a toast to the coast” with the
fine folks from The Shack.

SUNNY SUNDAYS
The Left Bank
Sunday, January 15, 2012
The sun shines brighter at the Left Bank on
Sunday afternoon when punters gather to wind
down their weekend before the dreaded working
week. As the sea breeze blows in, the Left Bank
is the perfect place to catch up with friends with
a bevy or two. Make the Left Bank your Sunday
session destination.

Bianca & Megan

Mairead & Stephen

Sam & Jackie

Sam & Katie

Monique, Wayne & Sophie

Photographs by Matt Jelonek

Pip, Chloe & Ash

38

X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays

Whether you’re on the hunt for a venue to ring in Australia Day with your mates, or simply want to know what’s on and where in the coming
weeks, Perth’s Party Places takes a look at the best Perth has to offer.

THE LEEDERVILLE HOTEL

Perth’s favourite party destination kicks off in 2012
with the city’s biggest and best mid-week event
every Wednesday, going wild with Perth’s top
DJs and an awesome light show. The Hotel is also
famous for their many annual events which are
huge every year – sex it up with the Sexy Bunny
Easter party and get in to the Christmas spirit
early with Xmas in July party. AFL grand final day
is always massive no matter who is playing with
Perth’s biggest LED screen to watch all of the action,
not to mention Melbourne Cup for the best after
party in Perth. And the Annual NYE Beach Party will
be back and bigger than ever with the arena filled
with sand. You’ll find the Leederville Hotel at 742
Newcastle Street in Leederville.

THE QUARIE BAR

Finally, The Quarie Bar & Brasserie opens! The freshly
completed venue is everything a neighbourhood
pub should be. On Australia Day chefs will carve and
serve lamb rolls from a five-hour spit roast in the beer
garden. Purchase any selected craft beer on the day
to go in the draw to win a mega-esky full of Aussie
session beer! Triple J Hottest 100 simulcast from start
to finish. Every Tuesday night from 5pm you’ll find
Crafty Kids; trained professionals with everything
from face painting to arts and crafts so the kids
can play, while you kick back and relax for dinner.
Weekly live acoustic sessions on Friday and Saturday
from 8.30pm and Sundays in the beer garden from
2.30pm.

THE NEWPORT

Did you vote for your favourite songs for 2011 in JJJ’s
Hottest 100 yet? The team at The Newport did! The
Newport is already making plans for some Australia
Day shenanigans with a Hed Kandi party cracking
on Australia Day eve featuring Chiari, Mitchell Smith
and Wasteland. Hed Kandi are notorious for stylish
and glamorous parties the world over and this one
is a first ever for Fremantle and the perfect way to
start a mid-week holiday! Then from midday on
Thursday, January 26, The Newport will count down
the Hottest 100, with ping pong and a free BBQ.

HIGH ROAD HOTEL

Perth’s premium destination pub north of the
river, The Saint George Hotel is renowned for its
legendary Sunday sessions. With 18 beers on tap,
great food and live entertainment from 4 o’clock, it’s
the place to be on a Sunday. Kick the weekend off
early on Thursdays with The One Thing Music Quiz.
Combining woks and rock the Saint offers a special
wok menu from $15 and a free music quiz. Fridays
see the Saint offer sundowner packages. Book for
10 or more of your friends between 3pm and 7pm
and The Saint will throw in a free platter and the first
drink is on them for you and your mates. Saturdays at
the Saint is kickin’ it with DJ Anaru on the decks from
8pm. Groove the night away to his eclectic mix of old
school tunes and the fresh new beats. With a private
upstairs function room and other funky function
areas the Saint has everything covered.

HYDE PARK HOTEL

The urban interior design at the newly refurbished
Hydey takes into account the inner city location
and blends the history and musical heritage that
exists with the Hyde Park. The back bar is about food
and meeting with friends. Every variety is covered
in the wine list with 37 wines available all by the
glass, plus 56 beer taps, from mass produced lagers,
independent ales and stouts.There are over 20 ciders
in bottles covering all flavour profiles and don’t
forget the extensive cocktail list. The Hyde Park tries
to achieve a quality of service that goes hand in hand
with its relaxed atmosphere. The beer garden takes
advantage of the perfect Perth weather, so sit back
and relax, enjoy the extensive food and beverage
selection and daily entertainment options.

Hyde Park Hotel

THE INGLEWOOD HOTEL
The Quarie Bar
The Saint

THE CLINK

Chiari plays The
Newport

THE SAINT

The Clink Nightclub hosts the Ralph Australian
Swimsuit Model of The Year competition throughout
February and March. The winner will compete in
March 2012 at the National Final in Surfers Paradise,
staying at the fabulous Q1 Resort. Four heats will
be held at The Clink on February 3, 10, 17 and 24
with the Grand Final on March 2. The winners of
2012 ASMY National Final will share in over $20,000
in cash and prizes including a feature shoot by
renowned photographer Wayne Daniels for the
cover of the next Australian Swimwear Model of the
Year Calendar. To enter the contest contestants must
be female and have reached the age of 18 on or by
October 1, 2011.

THE SAIL & ANCHOR

The Sail & Anchor is all about beer. With 43 taps
delivering an ever evolving seasonal range of craft
beer from every corner of Australia and around the
world. The Sail was recently voted Australia’s best
beer venue by Beer & Brewer Magazine and the Sail
team also bring you regular showcase months and
beer events all year round. Kicking off in the secound
week of Feb is the Hey Brew Festival, featuring
some of New Zealand’s finest craft beers and local
Kiwi musicians all month! In March, The Beer Lover
Guide to Australia count down their top 100 beers,
tapping the top 12 Australian beers for 2011 at the
Sail to celebrate.

Start your Australia Day celebrations early with NEO
playing Aussie classics from 7pm on Wednesday,
January 25. Doors open at 9am on Australia Day with
a BBQ breakfast and Triple J’s Hottest 100 will be on
the airwaves all day.

METRO CITY

If you’re a big fan of drum’n’bass, this will make you
cream your pants. Heavyweight Soundz: Australia
Day Eve Annual 2012 is due to smash Metro City on
Wednesday, January 25. Headlining the massive night
will be the legendary Andy C. Andy C, also known as
The Executioner, the English DJ and producer who
founded the drum’n’bass label Ram Records, will be
joined by his partner in crime MC GQ. DJ Fierce and
upcoming Austrian duo Camo & Krooked will also be
behind the decks. Tickets are $60 plus booking fee.
Grab them from loadeddice.com.au, Moshtix, Live
Clothing stores or on the door.

The High Road Hotel, located in Riverton, is the
perfect spot for a great night out. A large public bar
with screens showing all the latest sporting action
and music clips adjoins a pool room with three
great pool tables to play against your friends whilst
listening to the in-house music or on weekends, live
entertainment. Feeling hungry? Between 12pm and
2pm daily you can enjoy a great meal for just $15
with a free drink included. Weekly events include
poker nights every Monday from 6pm, student night
every Wednesday with a $2 pool competition and
$10 jugs, Crankin’ Fridays which is all about playing
all the best hits of classic rock acts such as Green
Day, Pearl Jam, Oasis from 8.30pm. Saturdays is live
entertainment with a rotating line up of cover bands
from 8.30pm.

The Paddo

THE PADDO

The team at The Paddo will be flying the green and
gold flag next week to celebrate this great nation
of ours. On Australia Day eve a bunch of bands will
entertain punters, with Groovetube acoustic from
5-8pm and Bluebottles live on stage from 9pm. On
Australia Day the Triple J Hottest 100 will be played
over the speakers while a sausage sizzle fires up with
Ben Merito live from 7pm. The fun continues every
Friday at the Paddo with Stu Harcourt live from
5-8pm, and Booty Jooce on stage at 9pm. If you’re a
sports fan don’t miss out on Superbowl Monday at
the Paddo on Monday, February 6. The venue opens
at 7am with the kickoff at 9am. Find out more at
paddo.com.au.

CIVIC HOTEL

The Civic Hotel is one of Perth’s most faithful
supporters of WA’s music scene with live bands
playing every week. Whether it be rock, metal, hip
hop tours or local acts, little else matters at The Civic
except the music. Boasting two band rooms, you
can catch White Limo Australia – The Foo Fighters
Experience with Big D and The Ambassadors on
Saturday, January 21. Castle Bravo headline The Den
on Friday, January 20, with guests. Touring acts in
January and February include Rubber Bandits from
Ireland in the Back Room on the Saturday, January
28, and American metallers Backtrack destroy The
Den on the same night. Head to the Civic on Friday,
February 3, for the Frighteners’ EP launch. Rock out
at The Civic.
www.xpressmag.com.au

The Clink

THE NORFOLK HOTEL

The Norfolk Hotel, located right in the centre
of Fremantle offers quality food, wine and beer,
convenient and comfortable accommodation, and
great live music in Fremantle weekly. The Norfolk
Basement lounge is an intimate performance space
and bar which features live original entertainment
Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Artists across
all styles and from all over the world have graced
the Basement stage. Catch The Amani Consort Live
on Friday, January 20, with guests Rae and Band,
Ladywood and Jkash. Magical play with Stoney Joe,
The Deep River Collective and Datura on Saturday,
January 21. A very special event, Carus will be
performing live and recording the performance at
The Basement on January 27-28.

Carus
39

40

X-Press â&#x20AC;&#x201C; First on the street, Wednesdays

ANDREW
SINCLAIR
& ERASERS
Shock Value

With enough of a DIY mentality to excite hipsters,
the pop sensibility to score a string of hits and
an uncompromising work ethic, Andrew Sinclair
and Erasers are quickly becoming two of the
local scene’s most recognisable voices. JENNIFER
PETERSON-WARD sat down with both fastrising local talents ahead of their collaborative
performance at RTRfm’s Golden Apples Of The
Sun, which descends upon The Bird this Sunday,
January 22.
Every generation produces a handful of local acts that even indie
types grudgingly admire – and at the moment Andrew Sinclair and
Erasers count among the lucky few. Their sounds are unique, as is
their involvement in songwriting and production.
Sinclair’s life has been one of musical obsession – from
playing cello in primary school, to a high school music scholarship,
to studying composition at WAAPA – eventually leading to stints
playing with post-rockers Shock! Horror! and minimalist sound
purveyors Erasers, as well as spinning tunes behind the decks
as a DJ at Good Company, a fortnightly house night at Ya Ya’s in
Northbridge.
Funnily enough, the local musician has hit on his greatest,
most progressive project yet under the rather mundane moniker of
his birth name – a fact that is very much reinforced in his critically
lauded debut LP Evil Summer and follow-up EP Harghada Dreams,
which were released at opposite ends of 2011.
“2011 was a year of many ups and downs for me. In terms
of music though, it was nothing but ups,” Sinclair says. “Putting
out my first album after years of thinking about it was a terrifying
thought – but I’m so happy with the records, and everyone who has
encountered [my music], from everyone here to people all over the
world, have been so supportive, and that support gives me purpose
as a musician. If people hated my music I don’t know if I would be
able to continue making it. Similarly, putting on shows with Good
Company has been extremely stressful and scary but has resulted
in some pure magic. I’m proud to say that the most fun I had at
a show this year was at LA Vampires back in September, my first
international tour.”
Minimalist drone duo Erasers have also been making
waves on the local scene with their unique brand of dreamy postpunk. Although their last 12 months have been significantly less
busy, with the pair taking time out to travel around Europe and
Japan, Rupert Thomas and Rebecca Orchard (also former members
of Shock! Horror!) say local audiences can expect to hear more of

THE END HAS NO END

Even those who aren’t overly familiar with the sub-strains of the
metal genre are sure to be impressed by ferocious displays of
playing technique on display from local metallers It All Ends Here,
The Fall Of Man and Archaic this Thursday, January 19, at Black
Betty’s. The ear-splitting, mind-melting mayhem kicks off at 9pm.

EXPERIMENTAL EXTRAVAGANZA

This Friday, January 20, at the Velvet Lounge some of the state’s
most experimental rockers are banding together for Sonic Velvet.
Starring The Ron Pollard Quintet, Runner, Sprawl, Spilt Cities
and The Gizzards, this is sure to be one weird and wacky evening
local music lovers won’t want to miss.

Andrew Sinclair
their hypnotic music this year.
“Hopefully we’ll have a new EP ready really soon and an
album not too long after. We’re working on releasing some new
stuff through our label OWLS and just generally having a good
time,” Orchard says, with Thomas adding: “We had some essential
gear stolen this week, so we’re going to be working around a
different set up which should be pretty interesting.”
To kick off what is sure to be a massive year for both
artists, Sinclair and Erasers will be combining forces for an
extended supergroup set which will headline Golden Apples Of
The Sun, a tripped-out summer Sunday session fundraiser for local
independent radio station RTRfm.
“When Adam [Trainer] at RTR asked us both to headline
this show we thought it made perfect sense to join forces and do
something special for the people who come down,” Sinclair says,
with Thomas adding that local punters can expect: “A few songs
from both sides, but played differently, probably a whole lot looser.
We might even do a 50 Cent cover.”

Erasers

SURFIN’ WA

Live summer tunes will also be on the menu at Clancy’s Fish Pub
Dunsborough this week for the Yallingup Surfilm Festival which runs
from Friday, January 20, to Sunday, January 22. Indigenous musician
Josh Whiteland will open the festival while young indie sensation
Jay Grafton will be bringing her sweet stories of life, love and
happiness on all three nights. Performing on Saturday and Sunday
evening will be up-and-coming singer-songwriter Moana Lutton.
So grab a blanket and some friends and enjoy three great nights of
live music under the stars. Doors open at 6pm with live music from
6.30pm. Tickets can be purchased from yallingupsurfilm.com.au.

COUNTRIFIED SOULS

This Saturday, January 21, the newly revamped Eastern Hotel
Courtyard in Midland will be the place to be to catch gifted finger
style guitarist/vocalist Robert Rodoreda. Joined by the unique
and versatile Rupert John on harmonica and the legendary Ron
Smeeton on bass, Rodoreda’s live set will feature a mix of covers
and originals, the roots of which stem from the triad of blues, jazz
and country. Catch the talented trio from 7.30pm.

FLIGHT FACILITIES

Next Tuesday, January 24, Bastian’s Happy Flight will ooze
their slick ‘80s inspired electro pop at Mojos Bar. Special new
band Three Hand And One Hoof will be playing alongside the
emergent 44th Sunset! Entry is a ludicrous $5 from a timely 8pm.

MOONLIGHTING
Spoonful of Sugar

SWEET TREAT

Local folk popsters Spoonful of Sugar are set to release their
debut EP at The Bird on Saturday, January 21. Joined by special
guests Bears and Dolls and Edie Green, whether you have a
sweet tooth or not, there can be no doubt Spoonful of Sugar’s
launch won’t leave a sour taste in your mouth. Tickets are $10 on
the door. Proceedings kick off at 8pm.
www.xpressmag.com.au

This Wednesday, January 18, Going Solo at the Moon late night cafe
presents a stellar line-up of local talented artists, including Grace
Woodroofe, Cam Avery (The Growl), Joe McKee (Snowman) and
Jay Watson (Tame Impala, Pond). The artists will go on at 8pm.
Entry to restaurants is always free!

SOLDIER ON

This Saturday January 21, Sugar Army play Mojos Bar! After having
such a great time on New Year’s Eve, the band are itching to start
playing live again, and those at the upcoming show will be treated to
a healthy mix of old favourites and fresh new songs. Supports include
High Horse and The Tumblers. Entry is $10 from 8pm sharp.
41

What does Australia Day mean to you? BBQs with mates?
Counting down the top songs of the previous year with
Triple J’s Hottest 100? But what happens after the last song
is announced? For those punters who want to keep the
festivities going, the Fly the Flag Festival is set to offer a night
of live entertainment which will make you proud to call
Australia home. Kicking off at 4.00pm at Dixon Road Reserve
in Rockingham, Fly the Flag will feature sets by Aussie rock
band The Super Group, internationally acclaimed DJ’s the
Stafford Brothers, Australia’s Got Talent favourite Bandit,
Melbournian indie rockers The Latonas and local talents
Sisters Doll and Custom Royal. Presale tickets are on sale now
for $99 from Ticketek.

KING TIDE

Renowned for their brilliant high-energy live shows,
Sydneysiders King Tide are ready to bring their
infectious, high-energy sweet rasta sounds sound back
to WA shores this summer. Promising to make the sun
shine brighter and the beer taste better at every show
they play, the reggae aficionados are encouraging one
and all to sample their fine wares over a five show extralong weekend of good times and fine tunes. Catch
them at The Prince of Wales on Wednesday, January
25, the Settlers Tavern on Thursday, January 26, Devilles
Pad on Friday, January 26, the Fly By Night on Saturday,
January 28 and The Indi Bar on Sunday, January 29.

GROHLING
WITH THE
HOMIES
This week Volume delves into the alternate world of
tribute acts with Foo Fighters’ tribute band White
Limo ahead of their performance at the Civic Hotel
on Friday, January 20.
With an heroic dedication to the object of their homage,
Perth’s newest tribute band White Limo are bringing all
the power and infectious energy of the Foo Fighters’ live
experience to local Foo fans.
As frontman Corey Ranger attests, the
local quintet have found the greatest outlet for their
agonised passion for “the hottest modern day rock band
on the planet” by pretending that they are the real thing.
“We as a band have completely different
musical backgrounds. From metal, blues [and] rock‘n’roll
to jazz. But there’s one thing we all feel passionate
about and that’s the legacy and music of Dave Grohl.
[Although] underrated at times, Grohl is a musical
genius of our era,” he says, adding that the Foo
Fighters’ show last November at the nib Stadium was
indisputably one of the best gigs he has ever seen:
“I was lucky enough to run into the band when they
were in Perth. We chatted for about half an hour about
our tribute band, their tour, past concerts, records, and
even got the invite jokingly from Taylor Hawkins for me
to replace Dave if he ever quit! The show they put on
was fantastic. I knew it would have been the talk of the
town in the following weeks.”
Named after a track on the newest Foo
Fighters album Wasting Light, White Limo perform a
tribute to their idols which replicates the live stylings
and stage presence of one of the world’s most popular
current rock bands.
“White Limo is the heaviest song they have
ever done to date [and it] proves in 2011-2012 that rock
‘n’ roll still lives on,” Ranger explains. “It shows that as a
band you don’t need electronic equipment, effects or
things like that to make decent music. It’s pure and it’s
perfect.”
While Ranger attests Grohl’s songs are what
46

Spot the Difference: White Limo frontman
Corey Ranger with Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl
make his band’s live shows great, he says the gear White
Limo use also plays a huge part in helping the band
sound more like the Foo Fighters live.
“We use Fender and Marshall Amps, which
will be turned up very loud. Our drummer Thomas
Filter uses a Gretsh drum kit. Unfortunately I’m the poor
bastard who will have to scream as good as Dave,” he
says. “We have Dan Kebo (aka our Pat Smear) who’s a
fantastic guitarist with a very crunchy grunge sound –
which will wake the neighbors up. Karl Anschutz is our
second guitarist has all the technical aspects covered.
And don’t worry about the rhythm section, brothers
Nick Filter and Tom – they are on top of their game and
ready to rock.”
Promising to cover a host of hit singles from
the Foo Fighters’ platinum-selling albums, as well as
some of their less represented material, White Limo are
set to deliver a truly authentic high-energy show at the
Civic Hotel on Friday, January 20 from 7.30pm.
“We’ll endeavor to give all those fans that
went to the Foo Fighters show in November a chance
to re-live the great night they had. And to the people
who missed out, our show is for you. We can’t wait to
play for everyone,” Ranger says, adding that he expects
their version of the smash hit All My Life to be a standout
during the energetic set:“There’s just something about
that song that makes you stand up, pump your fists
in the air and nod your head. We can’t wait to see the
crowd mosh to this one.”
X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays